Peter Backx

Optimizing content distribution through adaptive distributed caching

Web caching is a widely used technique to decrease Internet traffic and server load, as well as to reduce client-perceived response times. Most currently deployed caches are almost isolated entities, with very limited cooperation between them. In this paper, we use the power of active networking to implement a much more fine-grained cooperation. Active networking allows to intercept and monitor passing request packets and to place, on demand, a cache at virtually every node in the network, giving a broad range of possible caching locations and offering considerable content placement opportunities. A scalable and fast heuristic is proposed for inter-cache cooperation. The performance of the heuristic is evaluated through simulations, implemented on a test network and shown to be optimal for tree topologies.

Proxy caching algorithms and implementation for time-shifted TV services

The increasing popularity of multimedia streaming applications introduces new challenges in content distribution networks (CDNs). Streaming services such as Video on Demand (VoD) or digital television over the Internet (IPTV) are very bandwidth-intensive and cannot tolerate the high start-up delays and poor loss properties of todays Internet. To solve these problems, caching (the initial segment of) popular streams at proxies could be envisaged. This paper presents a novel caching algorithm and architecture for time-shifted television (tsTV) and its implementation, using the IETFs Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). The algorithm uses sliding caching windows with sizes depending on content popularity and/or distance metrics. The caches can work in stand-alone mode as well as in co-operative mode. This paper shows that the network load can already be reduced considerably using small diskless caches, especially when using co-operative caching. A prototype implementation is detailed and evaluated through performance measurements. Copyright

Design of a generic architecture for service management and monitoring of service level agreements through distributed intelligent agents

We present a generic architecture for service management and monitoring of service level agreements (SLA). Special attention has been devoted to the efficient management of computational resources. The usage of an intelligent agent platform (IAP) with this respect is motivated. The case study of an adaptive distributed caching architecture is presented and the agent for adaptive distributed data caching is detailed. Furthermore, a sample scenario is provided to illustrate the different stages in the data caching process and how distributed intelligent agents are used in favor.