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-cell base stations (SBSs), 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 the single-server scenario. 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 parallel transmissions from the servers. It is shown that, with successive transmissions the achievable average delivery latency is comparable to the one achieved in the single-server scenario, while the gap between the two depends on ρ, the available redundancy across the servers, and can be reduced by increasing the storage capacity at the SBSs. The optimality of the proposed scheme with uncoded cache placement and MDS-coded server storage is also proved for successive transmissions.