A cooperative mechanism for efficient inter-domain in-network cache sharing

Abstract

Recently, as the development of content-centric networking and Telco-CDNs, inter-domain cache sharing has attracted increased attention. With inter-domain cache sharing, ISPs can further reduce transit cost and improve the quality-of-service (QoS) by accessing their neighbors' caching devices. Currently, cache sharing is limited to free-peering ISPs. Enabling eyeball ISPs to share caches with their transit providers has substantial benefits, but both technical and economic challenges must be addressed. In this study, we consider the inter-domain cache-sharing problem as a double-sided market. In this market, eyeball ISPs receive reimbursement from transit providers for sharing their local caches, while transit ISPs obtain content from the caches of eyeball ISPs at lower cost than by obtaining content from upper tier ISPs. We propose an efficient cooperative mechanism based on Nash bargaining solution to address resource allocation issues in the double-sided market. The proposed mechanism can satisfy both the technical and economic properties desired.