On the relative dominance of paging algorithms

In this paper, we give a finer separation of several known paging algorithms using a new technique called relative interval analysis. This technique compares the fault rate of two paging algorithms across the entire range of inputs of a given size, rather than in the worst case alone. Using this technique, we characterize the relative performance of LRU and LRU-2, as well as LRU and FWF, among others. We also show that look-ahead is beneficial for a paging algorithm, a fact that is well known in practice but it was, until recently, not verified by theory.