UC Santa Cruz

One embodiment provides a system that facilitates efficient aggregation of multiple interest messages for the same content from multiple predecessors. During operation, an intermediate node receives a first interest message from a predecessor node. The first interest indicates a name for a content object and a lifetime associated with the first interest. The intermediate node identifies an entry in a pending interest table that corresponds to the first interest and determines that the entry has not expired. The intermediate node determines whether a second interest message which indicates a same content object name as the first interest message has been received from the predecessor node. If so, it forwards the first interest. If not, it adds information associated with the predecessor node to the entry. The intermediate node determines a predecessor lifetime associated with the entry and also determines a maximum lifetime associated with the entry.