Content-centric networking is either of two things... it may be a Xerox Parc project.
From the name, one might imagine that
ContentCentricNetworking (CCN) involves locating and communicating resources or data based on their content. Unfortunately, it's a misleading misnomer. CCN is a particular brand of distribution network (not a generic brand) that accesses data by
name rather than by content, but involves replicating that named content across the cloud. If we want to access resources by content, it is instead called
ContentAddressableNetworking (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_addressable_network) or content-addressed memory.
Content Centric Networking is discussed here:
The misleading nature of the name has some people (including me) resisting its use. But the actual CCN communication model is interesting and integrates security concerns, resource management concerns, and has proven effective enough for voice over IP.
OR:
A content-centric network is a network of data or files organized by their content or
name (sometimes using
MetaData), rather than by geo-location or domain address. Most
PeerToPeer file sharing networks use some form of content-centric networking, through the use of semi-equal peers.
DataDistributionService is a content-centric
PublishSubscribeModel.
MultiCaster pattern favors content-filtered subscriptions.
BlackboardMetaphor and
TupleSpaces (and
AssociativeMemory in general) support
ContentCentricNetworking indirectly by searching for patterns in a mutable shared space.