Towards pending interest table management solutions in named data networking

The transition of current Internet from host-centric communication to content-centric communication has been realized due to rapid growth in the number of users and their demands. Named Data Network (NDN) has emerged as Future Internet Architecture to meet the demands related to content oriented communication. Among other data structures such as Forwarding Information Base (FIB) and Content Store (CS), Pending Interest Table (PIT) holds record of the pending interests for which response has not yet received. Despite the benefits of PIT for fast packet forwarding (such as address less communication, loop detection, multi-path routing, packet aggregation, efficient bandwidth utilization), there are challenges faced by PIT. These challenges include name lookup speed, PIT memory consumption and PIT Entry Lifetime (PEL) that may render PIT as a bottleneck and hence will affect the system performance. In this paper, we thoroughly and systematically study the PIT management schemes. Our study covers the solutions for PIT management spanning over the last 7 years. As far as considering our learning, we are the first to study PIT based on both PIT memory size reduction to achieve fast look-up speed and different PEL calculation schemes. The study will help the research community in modeling better and optimized PIT management solutions. The paper also presents the research trends on the basis of different regions, publishing outlets, contributing patterns etc. in the field of PIT management in NDN.