On the Scale and Performance of Cooperative Web Proxy Caching

While algorithms for cooperative proxy caching have been widely studied, little is understood about cooperative-caching performance in the large-scale World Wide Web environment. This paper uses both trace-based analysis and analytic modelling to show the potential advantages and drawbacks of inter-proxy cooperation. With our traces, we evaluate quantitatively the performance-improvement potential of cooperation between 200 small-organization proxies within a university environment, and between two large-organization proxies handling 23,000 and 60,000 clients, respectively. With our model, we extend beyond these populations to project cooperative caching behavior in regions with millions of clients. Overall, we demonstrate that cooperative caching has performance benefits only within limited population bounds. We also use our model to examine the implications of future trends in Web-access behavior and traffic.