A networking system comprising a content router for an information-centric network (ICN) comprising a content store (CS), a pending interest table (PIT), a forwarding information base (FIB), and a plurality of interfaces, and configured to receive and forward interest from one or more users and data from one or more applications via the interfaces using a dual-mode data forwarding plane, and a plurality of next hop nodes of the ICN coupled to the content router and configured to forward the interest and data to the content router via the interfaces, wherein the dual-mode forwarding plane forwards the interest and data using the FIB without the CS and PIT for conversational traffic and using the CS, PIT, and FIB for content dissemination traffic.