InCan: In-network cache assisted eNodeB caching mechanism in 4G LTE networks

The rapid growth of wireless data networks has introduced unprecedented traffic that far exceeds the deployment of cellular infrastructures. Caching has been a common approach for coping with the increased amount of traffic. In this paper we propose an in-network cache assisted eNodeB caching mechanism for 4G LTE Networks. The idea is to cache content objects at eNodeBs1 and leverage in-network caches to improve eNodeB caching. We model the cost structure from both bandwidth and delay viewpoints and show that eNoodeB caching is noticeably beneficial. We propose a framework in which eNodeBs can use the information from in-network caches to improve caching performance. We formulate the problem of maximizing delay reduction and prove that the problem is NP-complete. We provide a 2-competitive offline algorithm and a practical online algorithm to solve the problem. We conduct trace-driven simulations and experiment under both synthetic and real network topologies. Results show that our approach can significantly save bandwidth for mobile operators and reduce delays for end users.