Where is in a name? Mobility in Information-Centric Networking

Natively supporting host mobility has been a long standing challenge in the current Internet due to its use of host-centric addressing. This is because changes in a node's location often necessitate changes in its address. In contrast, the recently proposed information-centric networking (ICN) paradigm chooses to address content rather than hosts, removing this complexity. Amongst the many proposed benefits, it is therefore hoped that ICNs will usher in a new era of seamless device mobility, exploiting the content-oriented nature of most communications. This article explores some of the key principles behind information-centric mobility, as well as highlighting prominent solutions. Through this, we seek to understand how effective information-centric networking might be at supporting mobility, before discussing the important future challenges that will need to be addressed before realising this dream.