diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 6755b23..f2ebc72 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
   - travis_retry sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:named-data/ppa
   - travis_retry sudo apt-get update -qq
   - travis_retry sudo apt-get install -qq ndnx-dev
-  - travis_retry sudo apt-get install -qq libboost-all-dev
+  - travis_retry sudo apt-get install -qq libboost1.48-all-dev
   - travis_retry sudo apt-get install -qq libcrypto++-dev
   - travis_retry sudo apt-get install -qq libsqlite3-dev
 script:
diff --git a/.waf-tools/boost.py b/.waf-tools/boost.py
index c714b5b..6d79788 100644
--- a/.waf-tools/boost.py
+++ b/.waf-tools/boost.py
@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@
  - boost libraries will try to be smart and use the (pretty but often not useful) auto-linking feature of MSVC
    So before calling `conf.check_boost` you might want to disabling by adding:
    	conf.env.DEFINES_BOOST += ['BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB']
-   Errors: 
+   Errors:
  - boost might also be compiled with /MT, which links the runtime statically.
-   If you have problems with redefined symbols, 
+   If you have problems with redefined symbols,
 		self.env['DEFINES_%s' % var] += ['BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB']
 		self.env['CXXFLAGS_%s' % var] += ['/MD', '/EHsc']
 Passing `--boost-linkage_autodetect` might help ensuring having a correct linkage in some basic cases.
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
 BOOST_VERSION_CODE = '''
 #include <iostream>
 #include <boost/version.hpp>
-int main() { std::cout << BOOST_LIB_VERSION << std::endl; }
+int main() { std::cout << BOOST_LIB_VERSION << ":" << BOOST_VERSION << std::endl; }
 '''
 
 # toolsets from {boost_dir}/tools/build/v2/tools/common.jam
@@ -92,16 +92,14 @@
 
 
 def options(opt):
-        opt = opt.add_option_group('Boost Options')
-    
+	opt = opt.add_option_group('Boost Options')
+
 	opt.add_option('--boost-includes', type='string',
 				   default='', dest='boost_includes',
-				   help='''path to the boost includes root (~boost root)
-				   e.g. /path/to/boost_1_47_0''')
+				   help='''path to the directory where the boost includes are, e.g., /path/to/boost_1_55_0/stage/include''')
 	opt.add_option('--boost-libs', type='string',
 				   default='', dest='boost_libs',
-				   help='''path to the directory where the boost libs are
-				   e.g. /path/to/boost_1_47_0/stage/lib''')
+				   help='''path to the directory where the boost libs are, e.g., /path/to/boost_1_55_0/stage/lib''')
 	opt.add_option('--boost-static', action='store_true',
 				   default=False, dest='boost_static',
 				   help='link with static boost libraries (.lib/.a)')
@@ -109,19 +107,16 @@
 				   default=False, dest='boost_mt',
 				   help='select multi-threaded libraries')
 	opt.add_option('--boost-abi', type='string', default='', dest='boost_abi',
-				   help='''select libraries with tags (dgsyp, d for debug),
-				   see doc Boost, Getting Started, chapter 6.1''')
+				   help='''select libraries with tags (dgsyp, d for debug), see doc Boost, Getting Started, chapter 6.1''')
 	opt.add_option('--boost-linkage_autodetect', action="store_true", dest='boost_linkage_autodetect',
 				   help="auto-detect boost linkage options (don't get used to it / might break other stuff)")
 	opt.add_option('--boost-toolset', type='string',
 				   default='', dest='boost_toolset',
-				   help='force a toolset e.g. msvc, vc90, \
-						gcc, mingw, mgw45 (default: auto)')
+				   help='force a toolset e.g. msvc, vc90, gcc, mingw, mgw45 (default: auto)')
 	py_version = '%d%d' % (sys.version_info[0], sys.version_info[1])
 	opt.add_option('--boost-python', type='string',
 				   default=py_version, dest='boost_python',
-				   help='select the lib python with this version \
-						(default: %s)' % py_version)
+				   help='select the lib python with this version (default: %s)' % py_version)
 
 
 @conf
@@ -141,11 +136,16 @@
 		except (OSError, IOError):
 			Logs.error("Could not read the file %r" % node.abspath())
 		else:
-			re_but = re.compile('^#define\\s+BOOST_LIB_VERSION\\s+"(.*)"', re.M)
-			m = re_but.search(txt)
-			if m:
-				return m.group(1)
-	return self.check_cxx(fragment=BOOST_VERSION_CODE, includes=[d], execute=True, define_ret=True)
+			re_but1 = re.compile('^#define\\s+BOOST_LIB_VERSION\\s+"(.*)"', re.M)
+			m1 = re_but1.search(txt)
+
+			re_but2 = re.compile('^#define\\s+BOOST_VERSION\\s+"(.*)"', re.M)
+			m2 = re_but2.search(txt)
+
+			if m1 and m2:
+				return (m1.group(1), m2.group(1))
+
+	return self.check_cxx(fragment=BOOST_VERSION_CODE, includes=[d], execute=True, define_ret=True).split(":")
 
 @conf
 def boost_get_includes(self, *k, **kw):
@@ -285,8 +285,12 @@
 
 	self.start_msg('Checking boost includes')
 	self.env['INCLUDES_%s' % var] = inc = self.boost_get_includes(**params)
-	self.env.BOOST_VERSION = self.boost_get_version(inc)
-	self.end_msg(self.env.BOOST_VERSION)
+	versions = self.boost_get_version(inc)
+	self.env.BOOST_VERSION = versions[0]
+	self.env.BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER = int(versions[1])
+	self.end_msg("%d.%d.%d" % (int(versions[1]) / 100000,
+				   int(versions[1]) / 100 % 1000,
+				   int(versions[1]) % 100))
 	if Logs.verbose:
 		Logs.pprint('CYAN', '	path : %s' % self.env['INCLUDES_%s' % var])
 
@@ -370,4 +374,3 @@
 			self.end_msg("Could not link against boost libraries using supplied options")
 			self.fatal('The configuration failed')
 		self.end_msg('ok')
-
diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
index 65690a6..3e5a45f 100644
--- a/INSTALL.md
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 * libcrypto
 * libsqlite3 
 * libcrypto++
-* boost libraries
+* boost libraries (>= 1.48)
 * OSX Security framework (on OSX platform only)
 
 Following are the detailed steps for each platform to install the prerequisites.
@@ -30,12 +30,16 @@
 
         sudo port install boost sqlite3 libcryptopp
 
-* Ubuntu 12.04 (64 bit and 32 bit), Ubuntu 13.04 (64 bit)
+* Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.10
 
     In a terminal, enter:
 
         sudo apt-get install build-essential
-        sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libcrypto++-dev
+        # For Ubuntu 12.04
+        sudo apt-get install libboost1.48-all-dev
+        # For Ubuntu 13.10
+        sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev
+        sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libcrypto++-dev
 
 * Windows Cygwin
 
@@ -87,10 +91,11 @@
 (to be confirmed)
 
 NDN-CPP is tested on the following platforms:
-Ubuntu 12.04 (64 bit and 32 bit) (gcc 4.6.3)
-Ubuntu 13.04 (64 bit) (gcc 4.7.3)
-Mac OS X 10.8.4 (clang 4.2)
-Mac OS X 10.8.4 (gcc 4.2)
+
+* Ubuntu 12.04 (64 bit and 32 bit)
+* Ubuntu 13.10 (64 bit and 32 bit)
+* Mac OS X 10.8
+* Mac OS X 10.9
 
 Development Prerequisites
 -------------------------
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 5fd177a..65db4a7 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@
 
     opt.add_option('--with-c++11', action='store_true', default=False, dest='use_cxx11',
                    help='''Use C++11 features, even if available in the compiler''')
-    opt.add_option('--without-system-boost', action='store_false', default=True, dest='use_system_boost',
-                   help='''Use system's boost libraries''')
     opt.add_option('--without-tools', action='store_false', default=True, dest='with_tools',
                    help='''Do not build tools''')
 
@@ -97,18 +95,17 @@
         conf.check(msg='Checking for type std::function',
                    type_name="std::function<void()>", header_name="functional", define_name='HAVE_STD_FUNCTION')
         conf.define('HAVE_CXX11', 1)
-    else:
-        if conf.options.use_system_boost:
-            USED_BOOST_LIBS = 'system filesystem date_time iostreams regex program_options'
-            if conf.env['WITH_TESTS']:
-                USED_BOOST_LIBS += " unit_test_framework"
+        
+    USED_BOOST_LIBS = ['system', 'filesystem', 'date_time', 'iostreams', 'regex', 'program_options', 'chrono']
+    if conf.env['WITH_TESTS']:
+        USED_BOOST_LIBS += ['unit_test_framework']
 
-            conf.check_boost(lib=USED_BOOST_LIBS)
-
-            boost_version = conf.env.BOOST_VERSION.split('_')
-            if int(boost_version[0]) > 1 or (int(boost_version[0]) == 1 and int(boost_version[1]) >= 46):
-                conf.env['USE_SYSTEM_BOOST'] = True
-                conf.define('USE_SYSTEM_BOOST', 1)
+    conf.check_boost(lib=USED_BOOST_LIBS, mandatory=True)
+    if conf.env.BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER < 104800:
+        Logs.error ("Minimum required boost version is 1.48.0")
+        Logs.error ("Please upgrade your distribution or install custom boost libraries" +
+                    " (http://redmine.named-data.net/projects/nfd/wiki/Boost_FAQ)")
+        return
 
     conf.check_cxx(lib='pthread', uselib_store='PTHREAD', define_name='HAVE_PTHREAD', mandatory=False)
     conf.check_cxx(lib='rt', uselib_store='RT', define_name='HAVE_RT', mandatory=False)