Risk-Averse Caching Policies for YouTube Content in Femtocell Networks using Density Forecasting

Abstract

The paper presents risk-neutral and risk-averse caching policies that can be deployed in a femtocell network with limited storage capacity to reduce the time delay of servicing content requests. The caching policies use a forecasting algorithm to estimate the cumulative distribution function of content requests based on the content features. Given the cumulative distribution function, a mixed-integer linear program is used to compute where to cache content in the femtocell network. The caching policies account for the uncertainty associated with estimating the content requests using the coherent Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) measure. For a large number of content, a risk-neutral caching policy is constructed that accounts for both the content features and routing protocol that only requires the evaluation of a unimodular linear program. Using data from YouTube (comprising 25,000 videos) and the NS-3 simulator, the caching policies reduce the delay of retrieving content in femtocell networks compared with industry standard caching policies. Specifically, a 6 percent reduction in delay is achieved by accounting for the uncertainty, and a 60 percent reduction in delay is achieved if both the uncertainty and femtocell routing protocol are accounted for compared to the risk-neutral caching policy that neglects the routing protocol.