Scalable Internet Routing on Topology-Independent Node Identities

Abstract

Unmanaged Internet Protocol (UIP) is a fully selforganizingnetwork-layer protocol that implements scalableidentity-based routing. In contrast with addressbasedrouting protocols, which depend for scalability oncentralized hierarchical address management, UIP nodesuse a flat namespace of cryptographic node identifiers.Node identities can be created locally on demand andremain stable across network changes. Unlike locationindependentname services, the UIP routing protocol canstitch together many conventional address-based networkswith disjoint or discontinuous address domains, providingconnectivity between any pair of participating nodes evenwhen no underlying network provides direct connectivity.The UIP routing protocol works on networks with arbitrarytopologies and global traffic patterns, and requiresonlyO(log N) storage per node for routing state, enablingeven small, ubiquitous edge devices to act as ad-hoc selfconfiguringrouters. The protocol rapidly recovers fromnetwork partitions, bringing every node up-to-date in amulticast-based chain reaction of O(log N) depth. Simulationresults indicate that UIP finds routes that are onaverage within 2X the length of the best possible route.