Mutual Synergy between Web Caches

Abstract

This paper, which consists of two parts, studies different kinds of what we call ‘synergy between caches’. The first part defines the synergy term in our context. Then, we propose to define three different kinds of synergy: local synergy, global synergy and mutual synergy. Local synergy concerns the cooperation between caches in the local domain. Global synergy results from the cooperation between a local cache and non local caches. Mutual synergy concerns the relation between local and global synergy. This study explains how cooperative caching may result in mutual synergy. The paper introduces an example of a complete and simple architectural solution to obtain mutual synergy. Such a solution increases the Quality of Service (QoS) with no major modification to the network configurations. The second part of the paper introduces the specifications of the Mutual Synergy Machine (MSM). The mutual synergy machine is a virtual machine implementing a “universal translator” between Web caches. The paper shows the rule of MSM in enhancing the performance of cooperative caches.