On Optimal Geographical Caching in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

In this work we investigate optimal geographical caching in heterogeneous cellular networks where different types of base stations (BSs) have different cache capacities. Users request files from a content library according to a known probability distribution. The performance metric is the total hit probability, which is the probability that a user at an arbitrary location in the plane will find the content that it requires in one of the BSs that it is covered by. We consider the problem of optimally placing content in all BSs jointly. As this problem is not convex, we provide a heuristic scheme by finding the optimal placement policy for one type of base station conditioned on the placement in all other types. We demonstrate that these individual optimization problems are convex and we provide an analytical solution. As an illustration, we find the optimal placement policy of the small base stations (SBSs) depending on the placement policy of the macro base stations (MBSs). We show how the hit probability evolves as the deployment density of the SBSs varies. We show that the heuristic of placing the most popular content in the MBSs is almost optimal after deploying the SBSs with optimal placement policies. Also, for the SBSs no such heuristic can be used; the optimal placement is significantly better than storing the most popular content. Finally, we show that solving the individual problems to find the optimal placement policies for different types of BSs iteratively, namely repeatedly updating the placement policies, does not improve the performance.Comment: The article has 6 pages, 7 figures and is accepted to be presented at IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) 2017, 19 - 22 March 2017, San Francisco, CA, US

A Low-Complexity Approach to Distributed Cooperative Caching with Geographic Constraints

We consider caching in cellular networks in which each base station is equipped with a cache that can store a limited number of files. The popularity of the files is known and the goal is to place files in the caches such that the probability that a user at an arbitrary location in the plane will find the file that she requires in one of the covering caches is maximized. We develop distributed asynchronous algorithms for deciding which contents to store in which cache. Such cooperative algorithms require communication only between caches with overlapping coverage areas and can operate in asynchronous manner. The development of the algorithms is principally based on an observation that the problem can be viewed as a potential game. Our basic algorithm is derived from the best response dynamics. We demonstrate that the complexity of each best response step is independent of the number of files, linear in the cache capacity and linear in the maximum number of base stations that cover a certain area. Then, we show that the overall algorithm complexity for a discrete cache placement is polynomial in both network size and catalog size. In practical examples, the algorithm converges in just a few iterations. Also, in most cases of interest, the basic algorithm finds the best Nash equilibrium corresponding to the global optimum. We provide two extensions of our basic algorithm based on stochastic and deterministic simulated annealing which find the global optimum. Finally, we demonstrate the hit probability evolution on real and synthetic networks numerically and show that our distributed caching algorithm performs significantly better than storing the most popular content, probabilistic content placement policy and Multi-LRU caching policies.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, presented at SIGMETRICS'1

Mobile communication system, method of arranging data segments in sequences and method of transmitting an acknowledgement

The invention relates to a mobile communication system. The mobile communication system includes a first base station configured to transmit at least part of a first data set of data segments arranged in a first sequence to a user terminal, and a second base station configured to transmit at least part of the first data set of data segments arranged in a second sequence to the user terminal, the second sequence of the first data set being an inverse of the first sequence of the first data set. The invention also relates to a coordination component, base station and user terminal for use in this system and to a method of arranging data segments in sequences performed by the coordination component. The invention further relates to a method of transmitting an acknowledgement, performed by the base station or by the user terminal

Distributed Cooperative Caching for Utility Maximization of VoD Systems

International audienceWe consider caching of VoD contents in a cellular network in which each base station is equipped with a cache. Videos are partitioned into chunks according to a layered coding mechanism and the goal is to place chunks in caches such that the expected utility is maximized. The utility depends on the quality at which a user is requesting a file and the chunks that are available. We impose alpha-fairness across files and qualities. We develop a distributed asynchronous algorithm for deciding which chunks to store in which cache