Flexible Content Placement in Cache Networks using Reinforced Counters

Abstract: In this paper we study the problem of content placement in a cache network. We consider a network where routing of requests is based on random walks. Content placement is done using a novel mechanism referred to as reinforced counters. To each content we associate a counter, which is incremented every time the content is requested, and which is decremented at a fixed rate. We model and analyze this mechanism, tuning its parameters so as to achieve desired performance goals for a single cache or for a cache network. We also show that the optimal static content placement, without reinforced counters, is NP hard under different design goals.