A systematic survey on content caching in ICN and ICN-IoT: Challenges, approaches and strategies

Context: Data traffic increased in recent years due to the expansion of IoT (Internet of Things) applications, and most IoT applications follow a content-oriented paradigm. The host-to-host nature of the existing internet architecture makes it inefficient for handling content distribution and information sharing. ICN (Information Centric Network) is a content-centric network that offers guaranteed solutions for data transfer between consumers and producers. ICN caching enables the caching technique in available resources, which can enhance the overall network performance by enabling users to access data within the network. Objective: This study aims to review the literature on caching approaches and strategies in ICN-IoT to identify areas that need more attention in current and future research directions. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted to identify the relevant literature, and 88 publications that are categorized as caching approaches and caching strategies were chosen as the most relevant studies. Result: Based on caching approaches and caching strategies, the articles are grouped. Edge caching (50%), in-network caching (25%), and hybrid caching (25%) represent the majority of the articles on caching approaches. Popularity-based caching (26%), cooperative caching (17%), collaborative caching (17%), machine learning-based caching (19%), and probabilistic caching (7%) represent the majority of the articles in caching strategies. This study further presents the simulators, performance metrics, parameters and performance evaluation of the existing literature. Conclusion: The results confirm that ICN is a futuristic internet architecture that assigns a content name to each content in the network and enables in-network caching; it is a superior technique for resolving IoT challenges and increases the overall network efficiency.