Efficient Caching Strategies in NDN-Enabled IoT Networks: Strategies, Constraints, and Future Directions
Ala’ Ahmad Alahmad, Azana Hafizah Mohd Aman, Faizan Qamar, Wail E. Mardini · Sensors · 2025
Named Data Networking (NDN) is identified as a significant shift within the information-centric networking (ICN) perspective that avoids our current IP-based infrastructures by retrieving data based on its name rather than where the host is placed. This shift in paradigm is especially beneficial in Internet of Things (IoT) settings because information sharing is a critical challenge, as millions of IoT items create enormous traffic. Content caching in the network is another key characteristic of NDN used in IoT, which enables data storing within the network and provides IoT devices with the opportunity to address nearby caching nodes to gain the intended content, which, in its turn, will minimize latency as well as bandwidth consumption. However, effective caching solutions must be developed since cache management is made difficult by the constant shifting of IoT networks and the constrained capabilities of IoT devices. This paper gives an overview of cache strategies in NDN-based IoT systems. It emphasizes six strategy types: popularity-based, freshness-aware, collaborative, hybrid, probabilistic, and machine learning-based, evaluating their performances in terms of demands like content preference, cache update, and power consumption. By analyzing various caching policies and their performance characteristics, this paper provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners developing caching strategies in NDN-based IoT networks.