Dynamic Service Caching in Mobile Edge Networks

Caching application services at the edge of mobile networks can both reduce the traffic load in core networks and improve the quality of services. Since the capacity of a single BS is constrained, only a small number of service can be executed simultaneously by each BS. However, when the BSs are densely deployed in the network, the BSs that are close to each other can cooperatively cache the services to improve the performance of the system. Moreover, we should avoid frequent service switching when the users’ service requests always change. In this paper, we study the dynamic service caching (DSC) problem in mobile edge networks. Our objective is to minimize the traffic load that needs to be forwarded to the cloud, as well as considering service switching cost of BSs. This DSC problem involves two important issues, which include cooperative service caching of adjacent BSs and service switching in adjacent time slots. To solve the DSC problem, we propose a dynamic service caching algorithm for the BSs to cooperatively cache the services in an online manner. The simulation results show that our algorithm can greatly reduce the forwarded traffic load without frequently changing the service caching of BSs.