Cloudlet-Aware Mobile Content Delivery in Wireless Urban Communication Networks

Abstract

LinkNYC is a first-of-its-kind urban communications network aiming to replace all payphones in the five boroughs of New York City with kiosk-like structures providing free super fast gigabit Wi-Fi to everyone. This work proposes and investigates the applicability of shifting LinkNYC from a traditional IP network to a content-centric network by upgrading all or a subset of their kiosks with standalone cloudlets, which cache content as it disseminates throughout the network, and content delivery cloudlets which are geographically distributed throughout the boroughs and store popular internet content. With this shift content is brought much closer to the end user than traditional methods which is essential in highly mobile environments. Analysis shows that adopting multiple content delivery cloudlets dramatically improves overall network performance and stability. Finally, given a cloudlet-aware path a mobile content delivery scheme is designed to offset service continuity issues that are amplified when a mobile user encounters multiple cloudlets with intermittent connectivity. Results show an overall improvement in a mobile user's throughput, response time and cache hit percentage.