User-assisted in-network caching in information-centric networking

In information-centric networking, in-network caching has the potential to improve network efficiency and content distribution performance by satisfying user requests with cached content rather than downloading the requested content from remote sources. In this respect, users who request, download, and keep the content may be able to contribute to in-network caching by sharing their downloaded content with other users in the same network domain (i.e., user-assisted in-network caching). In this paper, we examine various aspects of user-assisted in-network caching in the hopes of efficiently utilizing user resources to achieve in-network caching. Through simulations, we first show that user-assisted in-network caching has attractive features, such as self-scalable caching, a near-optimal cache hit ratio (that can be achieved when the content is fully cached by the in-network caching) based on stable caching, and performance improvements over in-network caching. We then examine the caching strategy of user-assisted in-network caching. We examine three caching strategies based on a centralized server that maintains all content availability information and informs each user of what to cache. We also examine three caching strategies based on each user’s content availability information. We first show that the caching strategy affects the distribution of upload overhead across users and the number of cache hits in each segment. One interesting observation is that, even with a small storage space (i.e., 0.1% of the content size per user), the centralized and distributed approaches improve the cache hit ratio by 50% and 45%, respectively. With an overall view of caching information, the centralized approach can achieve a higher cache hit ratio than the distributed approach. Based on this observation, we discuss a distributed approach with a larger view of caching information than the distributed approach and, through simulations, confirm that a larger view leads to a higher cache hit ratio. Another interesting observation is that the random distributed strategy yields comparable performance to more complex strategies.     

Caching in information centric networking: A survey

Internet usage has drastically shifted from host-centric end-to-end communication to receiver-driven content retrieval. In order to adapt to this change, a handful of innovative information/content centric networking (ICN) architectures have recently been proposed. One common and important feature of these architectures is to leverage built-in network caches to improve the transmission efficiency of content dissemination. Compared with traditional Web Caching and CDN Caching, ICN Cache takes on several new characteristics: cache is transparent to applications, cache is ubiquitous, and content to be cached is more ine-grained. These distinguished features pose new challenges to ICN caching technologies. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of state-of-art techniques aiming to address these issues, with particular focus on reducing cache redundancy and improving the availability of cached content. As a new research area, this paper also points out several interesting yet challenging research directions in this subject.     

Enhancing content-centric networking for vehicular environments

Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is a new popular communication paradigm that achieves information retrieval and distribution by using named data instead of end-to-end host-centric communications. This innovative model particularly fits mobile wireless environments characterized by dynamic topologies, unreliable broadcast channels, short-lived and intermittent connectivity, as proven by preliminary works in the literature.     

Realising an application environment for information-centric networking

It has been argued by many that the Future Internet should address information at the core of its operation. Prototypes have emerged to embody this new paradigm. Applications for such networks, however, are noted primarily by their absence. In spite of an appetite for Information-Centric Networking (ICN) applications, relatively little has come to fruition. We suggest that this is due to an unfavorable development environment, requiring applications to interface with the ICN substrate directly. This paper aims to answer this shortcoming by providing a middleware layer that aids the development of more advanced applications. We also present an application that leverages the middleware and answers a real-world problem concerning personalised media delivery. We argue that the development of this, and potentially other, application(s) is aided by the presence of such an application environment.     

内容中心网络中基于节点相似度的协作缓存算法

针对内容中心网络中ALWAYS缓存策略节点存储空间利用率低、内容访问时延大、整体网络缓存性能低下的问题,提出了一种依据节点相似度的协作缓存算法。该算法优先将兴趣包转发至最相似节点,增大相关请求的就近响应概率;同时保证在缓存决策中的同一副本在协作节点间不重复存储,在降低冗余的同时增加了缓存多样性。实验结果表明,与现有算法相比,该算法在减少路由跳数和请求时延的同时提高了缓存命中率。     

命名数据网络中一种基于节点分类的数据存储策略

缓存是命名数据网络(named data networking, NDN)有别于传统网络最突出的特性之一,NDN中默认所有节点都具有缓存所有经过数据的功能.这种“处处缓存”策略导致网内大量冗余数据的产生,使网内缓存被严重浪费.针对上述问题,首次提出了一种基于节点分类(based on node classification, BNC)的数据存储策略.基于节点位置的不同,将数据返回客户端所经过的节点分为“边缘”类节点与“核心”类节点.当数据经过“核心”类节点时,通过权衡该类节点的位置与数据在不同节点的流行度分布,将数据存储在对其他节点最有利的节点中;当数据经过“边缘”类节点时,通过该数据流行度来选择最有利于客户端的位置.仿真结果表明,提出的策略将有效提高数据命中率,减少数据请求时延和距离.     

An algorithmic strategy for in-network distributed spatial analysis in wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network (WSN) can be construed as an intelligent, largely autonomous, instrument for scientific observation at fine temporal and spatial granularities and over large areas. The ability to perform spatial analyses over sensor data has often been highlighted as desirable in areas such as environmental monitoring. Whilst there exists research on computing topological changes of dynamic phenomena, existing proposals do not allow for more expressive in-network spatial analysis. This paper addresses the challenges involved in using WSNs to identify, track and report topological relationships between dynamic, transient spatial phenomena and permanent application-specific geometries focusing on cases where the geometries involved can be characterized by sets of nodes embedded in a finite 2-dimensional space. The approach taken is algebraic, i.e., analyses are expressed as algebraic expressions that compose primitive operations (such as Adjacent, or AreaInside). The main contributions are distributed algorithms for the operations in the proposed algebra and an empirical evaluation of their performance in terms of bit complexity, response time, and energy consumption.     

CCN中基于业务分类和节点分区的混合缓存机制

针对内容中心网络(content centric networking,CCN)中不同业务内容的合理放置问题,提出了一种基于业务分类和节点分区的混合缓存机制。根据不同的业务特征,设计了差异化的缓存策略。对于流媒体点播业务,采用基于流行度的推拉式缓存,实现其在边缘网络的按序存储;对于非流媒体共享内容,采用基于hash的显式缓存,实现其在核心网络的单一副本放置。仿真结果表明,与经典算法相比,该机制提高了缓存命中率和跳数减少率,降低了平均请求时延。     

Design and analysis of a variable bit rate caching algorithm for continuous media data

In this paper, the problem of caching continuous media data in a (main) memory and disk caching system is addressed. Caching schemes can significantly reduce the load on the network as well as on the servers, also the retrieval of documents from the cache requires short response time. In interval-level caching algorithms, an interval of data between two adjacent streams is the basic caching entity. In this paper, we design a novel algorithm, referred to as variable bit rate caching (VBRC) algorithm, which belongs to the interval-level caching algorithms. The proposed VBRC algorithm can be used in the system for memory caching or disk caching. VBRC can handle variable retrieval bandwidth as well as constant retrieval bandwidth . In designing the VBRC algorithm, we propose the strategies of reducing the number of switching operation, which will probably cause discontinuity of retrieving data. Also, we propose a just-in-time scheme for resource allocation in our VBRC algorithm and show that the caching performance in comparison with the reservation scheme adopted in the resource-based caching (RBC) algorithm is significantly improved. Our simulation study compares the recent and most popular generalized interval caching, RBC, and VBRC, on several influencing factors such as cache space size, cache I/O bandwidth, request arrival rate, and percentage of requests for large documents, with respect to the byte hit ratio and the number of switching operations. The simulation result confirms our analysis.

组网火控雷达传感器分配研究

从科学合理分配组网火控雷达资源出发,以扩展卡尔曼滤波跟踪为基础,研究了用航迹精度作为传感器分配准则的方法;针对火控提高航迹精度和反隐身目标、低空目标作战需求,考虑雷达布站对防空覆盖区域划分和对抗ARM,提出了单部火控雷达对单目标进行跟踪、多部火控雷达对单目标进行跟踪和多部火控雷达对单目标间歇式轮换跟踪3种分配方式,对在不同方式下基于航迹精度的传感器分配方法进行讨论分析;设定组网系统雷达布站、目标运动和典型参数进行了仿真实验,通过仿真结果表明:3种分配方式的合理性和可行性。     

Performance improvement of web caching in Web 2.0 via knowledge discovery

Web 2.0 systems are more unpredictable and customizable than traditional web applications. This causes that performance techniques, such as web caching, limit their improvements. Our study was based on the hypotheses that the use of web caching in Web 2.0 applications, particularly in content aggregation systems, can be improved by adapting the content fragment designs. We proposed to base this adaptation on the analysis of the characterization parameters of the content elements and on the creation of a classification algorithm. This algorithm was deployed with decision trees, created in an off-line knowledge discovery process. We also defined a framework to create and adapt fragments of the web documents to reduce the user-perceived latency in web caches. The experiment results showed that our solution had a remarkable reduction in the user-perceived latency even losses in the cache hit ratios and in the overhead generated on the system, in comparison with other web cache schemes.     

Performance of RAID5 disk arrays with read and write caching

In this paper, we develop analytical models and evaluate the performance of RAID5 disk arrays in normal mode (all disks operational), in degraded mode (one disk broken, rebuild not started) and in rebuild mode (one disk broken, rebuild started but not finished). Models for estimating rebuild time under the assumption that user requests get priority over rebuild activity have also been developed. Separate models were developed for cached and uncached disk controllers. Particular emphasis is on the performance of cached arrays, where the caches are built of Non-Volatile memory and support write caching in addition to read caching. Using these models, we evaluate the performance of arrayed and unarrayed disk subsystems when driven by a database workload such as those seen on systems running any of several popular database managers. In particular, we assume single-block accesses, flat device skew and little seek affinity.With the above assumptions, we find six significant results. First, in normal mode, we find there is no difference in performance between subsystems built out of either small arrays or large arrays as long as the total number of disks used is the same. Second, we find that if our goal is to minimize the average response time of a subsystem in degraded and rebuild modes, it is better to use small arrays rather than large arrays in the subsystem. Third, we find the counter-intuitive result that if our goal is to minimize the average response time of requests to any one array in the subsystem, it is better to use large arrays than small arrays in the subsystem. We call this the best worst-case phenomenon.Fourth, we find that when no caching is used in the disk controller, subsystems built out of arrays have a normal mode performance that is significantly worse than an equivalent unarrayed subsystem built of the same drives. For the specific drive, controller, workload and system parameters we used for our calculations, we find that, without a cache in the controller and operating at typical I/O rates, the normal mode response time of a subsystem built out of arrays is 50% higher than that of an unarrayed subsystem. In rebuild mode, we find that a subsystem built out of arrays can have anywhere from 100% to 200% higher average response time than an equivalent unarrayed subsystem.Out fifth result is that, with cached controllers, the performance differences between arrayed and equivalent unarrayed subsystems shrink considerably. We find that the normal mode response time in a subsystem built out of arrays is only 4.1% higher than that of an equivalent unarrayed system. In degraded (rebuild) mode, a subsystem built out of small arrays has a response time 11% (13%) higher and a subsystem built out of large arrays has a response time 15% (19%) higher than an unarrayed subsystem.Our sixth and last result is that cached arrays have significantly better response times and throughputs than equivalent uncached arrays. For one workload, a cached array with good hit ratios had 5 times the throughout and 10 to 40 times lower response times than the equivalent uncached array. With poor hit ratios, the cached array is still a factor of 2 better in throughput and a factor of 4 to 10 better in response time for this same workload.We conclude that 3 design decisions are important when designing disk subsystems built out of RAID level 5 arrays. First, it is important that disk subsystems built out of arrays have disk controllers with caches, in particular Non-Volatile caches that cache writes in addition to reads. Second, if one were trying to minimize the worst response time seen by any user, one would choose disk array subsystems built out of large RAID level 5 arrays because of the best worst-case phenomenon. Third, if average subsystem response time is the most important design metric, the subsystem should be built out of small RAID level 5 arrays.     

Frequency-based cache management policies for collaborative and non-collaborative topologies of segment based video caching proxies

This paper examines a novel cache management policy applied to non-collaborative and collaborative environments of more than one proxy server that serve homogeneous or even heterogeneous client requests for video streaming over the Internet. This cache management policy, which we call LRLFU because of a combination between an LRU and an LFU policy, is capable of capturing the changing popularities of the various videos by attaching a caching value to every video according to how recently and how frequently the video was requested, and decides to cache the most ‘valuable’ videos. Our event-driven simulations have shown that LRLFU when applied to a simple non-collaborative topology of proxies and compared with previous work in this area (1) improve the byte-hit ratio (BHR), (2) significantly reduce the fraction of user requests with delayed starts and (3) require less CPU overhead. Furthermore, our simulation results have shown that the collaborative hierarchical tree topology of proxies that we examine achieves a much higher BHR when using the same overall cache capacity with the simple topology and in general provides better performance characteristics.This work was conducted while A. Satsiou was a MSc student in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering Technical University of Crete.     

Grid VFS中代理管理客户端磁盘缓存的设计与实现

设计并实现了在网格虚拟文件系统Grid VFS客户端采用代理管理磁盘缓存来隐藏网络延迟，提高网格数据利用率。此方法扩展了虚拟化分布式文件系统，提高了对网格资源有效完整的数据访问。在Grid VFS中，客户端代理动态地产生和管理磁盘缓存，每一个未修改的应用程序和OS都能应用，支持write-back策略、文件系统之间缓存的共享以及磁盘缓存的多级化，通过用户级VFS可以完整的集成到网格应用程序和资源中，从而提高了网格数据的访问性能。     

智能家居示范工程中的家庭组网问题分析

如今,单纯的智能家居应用演示已无法对物联网产业的发展形成持续的推动力,加快智能家居示范工程建设势在必行。家庭组网是智能家居应用示范建设中的关键环节,为此,文中对应用示范工程中所采用的家庭组网技术从业务应用需求、家庭内部建筑结构等方面进行了分析研究,认为家庭组网不仅要从家庭组网技术本身来进行理论性分析,更要从示范工程的实际需求与后续运营维护升级的角度来考虑。     

Performance characterization of multi-thread and multi-core processors based XML application oriented networking systems

There is a growing trend to insert application intelligence into network devices. Processors in this type of Application Oriented Networking (AON) devices are required to handle both packet-level network I/O intensive operations as well as XML message-level CPU intensive operations. In this paper, we investigate the performance effect of symmetric multi-processing (SMP) via (1) hardware multi-threading, (2) uni-processor to dual-processor architectures, and (3) single to dual and quad core processing, on both packet-level and XML message-level traffic. We use AON systems based on Intel Xeon processors with hyperthreading, Pentium M based dual-core processors, and Intel’s dual quad-core Xeon E5335 processors. We analyze and cross-examine the SMP effect from both highlevel performance as well as processor microarchitectural perspectives. The evaluation results will not only provide insight to microprocessor designers, but also help system architects of AON types of device to select the right processors.     

Performance analysis of a caching algorithm for a catch-up television service

The catch-up TV (CUTV) service allows users to watch video content that was previously broadcast live on TV channels and later placed on an on-line video store. Upon a request from a user to watch a recently missed episode of his/her favourite TV series, the content is streamed from the video server to the customer’s receiver device. This requires that an individual flow is set up for the duration of the video, and since it is hard to impossible to employ multicast streaming for this purpose (as users seldomly issue a request for the same episode at the same time), these flows are unicast. In this paper, we demonstrate that with the growing popularity of the CUTV service, the number of simultaneously running unicast flows on the aggregation parts of the network threaten to lead to an unwieldy increase in required bandwidth. Anticipating this problem and trying to alleviate it, the network operators deploy caches in strategic places in the network. We investigate the performance of such a caching strategy and the impact of its size and the cache update logic. We first analyse and model the evolution of video popularity over time based on traces we collected during 10 months. Through simulations we compare the performance of the traditional least-recently used and least-frequently used caching algorithms to our own algorithm. We also compare their performance with a “perfect” caching algorithm, which knows and hence does not have to estimate the video request rates. In the experimental data, we see that the video parameters from the popularity evolution law can be clustered. Therefore, we investigate theoretical models that can capture these clusters and we study the impact of clustering on the caching performance. Finally, some considerations on the optimal cache placement are presented.     

An energy efficient re-access scheme for data caching in data broadcast of a mobile computing environment

Data caching is used to improve the response time and the power consumption of a mobile client in a mobile computing environment. To enhance the performance of data caching, one needs to improve the hit ratio and to reduce the cost in processing a cache miss. In a mobile computing environment, a cached data item of a mobile client needs to remain up-to-date with respect to its corresponding data item in the server. A cached data item which is out of date is called a cached invalidated data item. Accessing a cached invalidated data item can be regarded as processing a cache miss. To access a cached invalidated data item, a mobile client needs to download the new content of the data item from the broadcast channel. This operation is called a re-access operation in this paper. Re-accessing a cached invalidated data item incurs large tuning time overhead. In this paper, we propose a re-access scheme that reduces this overhead by allowing a mobile client to access a cached invalidated data item from the broadcast channel without accessing indices. We analyze the performance of the proposed scheme and validate the analysis through experiments. The experiments showed that the proposed scheme significantly reduces the tuning time of a mobile client. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is robust in the sense that it allows changes on the broadcast structure in data broadcasting.     

一种缩减内容中心网络的AS域间流量的机制

内容中心网络(content-centric networking,CCN)的一个主要特点就是利用网络内部存储提高网络性能和缩减网络冗余流量.但由于当前路由器存储技术的限制,使得CCN路由器的内容存储器(CS)空间大小十分有限,这造成了路由器缓存的命中率很低,导致CCN的网络性能优势和冗余流量缩减的作用无法得到体现.为了有效地解决这个问题,提出了一种新颖的存储系统AS-BOOST,该系统可以避免当前存储技术的限制,使得CCN的优势得到充分发挥,同时可以防止针对CCN的缓存污染攻击.通过仿真来验证AS-BOOST的有效性,仿真结果表明,只要付出少量的存储开销,AS-BOOST就可以有效地提高用户请求的命中率和明显降低AS域间流量,并且不易受到缓存污染攻击.     

Social networking as a nexus for engagement and exploitation of young people

This paper addresses commonalities between two different forms of exploitation of young people – child abuse images and online solicitation and radicalisation. A number of areas of similarity are identified, and the implications of these commonalities are discussed. The role of social networking as a critical factor is particularly explored.