Cache-Version Selection and Content Placement for Multi-Resolution Video Streaming in Information-Centric Networks

Abstract

Information Centric Networks (ICN) is an infrastructure that focuses on information retrieval rather than end to end connections. ICN uses 2 features - name based routing and in-network caching in order to attain better performance. Named Data Networks (NDN) is an architecture for Information Centric Networks (ICN). In this thesis, we implement a version selection cum content placement policy (CaVe-CoP) that takes advantage of both features. We focus on multi-resolution video streaming and implement a scheme where only an optimal set of resolutions of videos need to be cached in order to obtain higher network utility. This distinction between multiple resolutions of the same video is possible today because of the varied devices available for video streaming that have different resolution constraints. We first formulate and solve an optimization problem for version selection and content placement in a generic network that supports multi-resolution video streaming and has in-network caches. Next, we implement the solution in an NDN-compliant framework (ndnSIM) as a distributed algorithm. We compare our policy against 2 other policies - 1) where all resolutions of a content are cached, and 2) where the user opts for a greedy version selection. Our simulations on general network topologies show a fast convergence rate, higher utility and a lower stall time in comparison to both these policies.