ndn-protocol

Implements the core Named Data Networking (NDN) packet types -- names, Interests, Data, and signatures -- on top of ndn-tlv.

It gives you typed, spec-compliant packet construction, signing, and verification.

Installation

cargo add ndn-protocol

Example

use bytes::Bytes;
use ndn_protocol::{Data, DigestSha256, Interest, Name, SignSettings};

fn main() {
    let name = Name::from_str("/hello/world").unwrap();
    let mut signer = DigestSha256::new();

    // Consumer side: build and sign an Interest.
    let mut interest = Interest::<()>::new(name.clone());
    interest.sign(&mut signer, SignSettings::default());
    assert!(interest.verify(&signer).is_ok());

    // Producer side: answer with a signed Data packet.
    let mut data = Data::new(name, Bytes::from_static(b"hello!"));
    data.sign(&mut signer);
    assert!(data.verify(&signer).is_ok());
}

How it works

Names (Name) are hierarchical and built from typed NameComponents -- a plain segment, a version number, an embedded digest, and so on -- so components can't be constructed from the wrong kind of data. Parse one from a URI with Name::from_str, or build one component by component.
Interests and Data (Interest, Data) are the two packet types NDN's request/response exchange is built from. Both are generic over their payload type, so application data is encoded and decoded through the same TlvEncode/TlvDecode traits used everywhere else in the stack, instead of forcing callers to work with raw bytes.
Signing and verification go through the SignMethod and SignatureVerifier traits, implemented by DigestSha256 (a plain digest, proving only that a packet wasn't corrupted in transit) and SignatureSha256WithRsa (RSA over SHA-256, for real authentication). The same traits are used on the consuming side, so verifying an incoming Data or Interest looks the same regardless of which scheme signed it.
Certificates (Certificate, RsaCertificate) are signed Data packets carrying a public key. Load one together with its private key from a .safebag file exported by ndnsec with RsaCertificate::from_safebag.
Errors are reported through NdnError for parsing and I/O, and the narrower SignError/VerifyError for the signing and verification paths specifically.

This crate implements the packet types themselves; it doesn't talk to a forwarder. See ndn-app for that.

Related crates

ndn-app is an application framework for building NDN producers and consumers, built on top of this crate plus ndn-ndnlp and ndn-nfd-mgmt.
ndn-tlv provides the TLV encoding/decoding traits this crate's packet types are built on.
ndn-ndnlp implements NDNLPv2, the link-layer protocol used to send these packets over a transport.
ndn-nfd-mgmt implements the NFD management protocol, used e.g. to register routes with a local forwarder.

License

MIT