Coded caching in a multi-server system with random topology

Abstract

Cache-aided content delivery is studied in a multi-server system with P servers and K users, each equipped with a local cache memory. In the delivery phase, each user connects randomly to any ρ out of P servers. Thanks to the availability of multiple servers, which model small base stations with limited storage capacity, user demands can be satisfied with reduced storage capacity at each server and reduced delivery rate per server; however, this also leads to reduced multicasting opportunities compared to a single server serving all the users simultaneously. A joint storage and proactive caching scheme is proposed, which exploits coded storage across the servers, uncoded cache placement at the users, and coded delivery. The delivery latency is studied for both successive and simultaneous transmission from the servers. It is shown that, with successive transmission the achievable average delivery latency is comparable to that achieved by a single server, while the gap between the two depends on ρ, the available redundancy across servers, and can be reduced by increasing the storage capacity at the SBSs.