Efficient content caching for named data network nodes

Abstract

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a promising Content-Centric Network (CCN) architecture that supports data distribution and data sharing by in-network ubiquitous content caching. In NDN, each router has content store to cache data packets passed by and, therefore, frequently requested content by consumers (e.g., end hosts) is cached at multiple routers in the network. Content caching at routers enables data delivery to consumers from a nearest location with minimal latency and thereby enhances overall network performance. Content store at nodes should have sufficient space to hold the current frame of locality of reference for attaining a good hit rate. The content store size requirement for each node is different due to their topological characteristics. Homogeneous caching mechanisms distribute the total cache budget equally among the nodes irrespective of their topological characteristics. In contrast, heterogeneous caching allocates cache to the nodes based on their topological importance. In this paper, a heterogeneous on-path cache budget distribution approach is proposed that distributes cache to the content stores based on reference locality of the nodes. The proposed cache distribution algorithm is evaluated for structured and unstructured network topology using the ndnSIM simulator. The results are compared with the homogeneous cache distribution mechanism and 14% improvement in cache hit rate is achieved.