Cache Update and Delivery of Dynamic Contents: A Stochastic Game Approach

In this paper, we propose a cache update policy for wireless networks considering dynamic popularity for file requests. Our network scenario is a wireless network comprised of some cache-equipped access points (APs) which are deployed densely in an area and have connections with core network servers. We model the dynamics of file requests as Markov-modulated Poisson processes. Considering the congestion-dependent delay of APs’ services and their overlapping coverage areas, we model the cache service for the cache-missed requests, as a stochastic game in which a Vickrey–Clarke–Groves (VCG) mechanism is exploited at each stage of the game as our proposed file routing policy, and the APs decide independently how to update their caches regarding the routed files. To this end, the APs’ utilities are defined based on long-term average file delivery delay including the queueing delay in APs. By finding the Nash equilibrium of the game, we propose policies for both delivery and cache update of dynamic contents. Finally, by comparing numerical results of our proposed scheme with some conventional caching schemes, we show significant improvements in network performance in terms of file delivery delay in different conditions.