Connecting the Dots : Selective Fragment Recovery in ICNLoWPAN

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the benefits of integrating 6LoWPAN Selective Fragment Recovery (SFR) in ICNLoWPAN. We present a solution that allows for immediate fragment forwarding - -a key feature of SFR - -in combination with ICN caching. Our proposal introduces a Virtual Reassembling Endpoint (VREP), which acts transparently as an SFR fragment forwarder while simultaneously collecting fragments. Once a datagram is complete, it is exposed to the content cache, effectively making the VREP the new fragmenting endpoint. Our solution complies with current specs defined in the IETF/IRTF. Furthermore, we combine the reverse path forwarding schemes of both SFR and ICNLoWPAN and assess drawbacks and benefits in a testbed. Our evaluation shows that SFR with VREP performs similar to hop-wise reassembly, details depend on the topology, but both outperform SFR without VREP in all scenarios.