Performance Evaluation of the NDN Data Plane Using Statistical Model Checking

Named Data Networking (NDN) is an emerging internet architecture that addresses weaknesses of the Internet Protocol (IP). Since Internet users and applications have demonstrated an ever-increasing need for high speed packet forwarding, research groups have investigated different designs and implementations for fast NDN data plane forwarders and claimed they were capable of achieving high throughput rates. However, the correctness of these statements is not supported by any verification technique or formal proof. In this paper, we propose using a formal model-based approach to overcome this issue. We consider the NDN-DPDK prototype implementation of a forwarder developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which leverages concurrency to enhance overall quality of service. We use our approach to improve its design and to formally demonstrate that it can achieve high throughput rates.