Network centric improvements to resource caching

Network bandwidth is a precious commodity in the information age. One would be hard-pressed to cite an example of an industry, hobby, or effort that could not benefit, in some way, from a communication network. The ability to minimize the allocation time for communication channels within a network is one of the primary concerns of the network administrator. Network resource caching is one technique that may be used to reduce channel allocation time. Therefore, improvements to the standard cache management algorithms are an important component of achieving this goal. This study demonstrates the potential benefit of the time distance indexing factor (TDIF) cache replacement algorithm over a traditional technique, least recently used (LRU), in reducing communication channel allocation time. The benefit of this technique translates into an increase in the effective bandwidth of the network.