An Evaluation of Two Domical Block Replacement Techniques for Streaming Media in Wireless Home Networks

Wireless mesh home networks are deployed widely due to their ease of installation and economical prices. A typical network may consist of a handful of devices such as PCs, laptops, wireless consumer electronic devices, and game consoles. Devices may share data by making the state of their caches dependent on one another using a cooperative caching technique such as Domical. This sharing of data at the edges of the network reduces the load on the infrastructure outside of the household, freeing it to service other requests. In this paper, we analyze two local cache replacement techniques designed to enhance average startup latency of streaming media. Both pre-stage a fraction of a clip on a device in anticipation of its future reference in order to display the prefetch portion while streaming its remainder in the background. We use a simulation study of a realistic home network to compare these two technique with one another when deployed with Domical. Obtained results show show one technique, named urgency-worthiness, is superior to the other when storage is abundant.