1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: determining, by a computing device, a number k, of network nodes for a content centric networking (CCN) network; determining an average node degree as twice a number of edges divided by a number of nodes, a degree-of-connectivity distribution, and a joint degree or higher-order distribution, that achieves an optimal performance metric for the CCN network to transmit a CCN Interest, wherein the joint degree distribution indicates an occurrence for a respective pair of node degrees, and wherein the higher-order distribution indicates a probability distribution of loops with at least three nodes; generating a network topology of k network nodes that satisfies the average node degree, and satisfies the degree-of-connectivity distribution and joint degree or higher-order distribution; mapping the k nodes of the generated network topology to nodes of a physical computer network; and transmitting the CCN Interest via the physical computer network according to the mapped network topology.