Application-Controlled Paging for a Shared Cache

We propose a provably efficient application-controlled global strategy for organizing a cache of size k shared among P application processes. Each application has access to information about its own future page requests, and by using that local information along with randomization in the context of a global caching algorithm, we are able to break through the conventional Hk ln k lower bound on the competitive ratio for the caching problem. If the P application processes always make good cache replacement decisions, our online application-controlled caching algorithm attains a competitive ratio of 2HP -1 + 2 2 ln P. Typically, P is much smaller than k, perhaps by several orders of magnitude. Our competitive ratio improves upon the 2P + 2 competitive ratio achieved by the deterministic application-controlled strategy of Cao, Felten, and Li. We show that no online application-controlled algorithm can have a competitive ratio better than min{HP -1, Hk}, even if each application process h...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2000
• Where: SIAMCOMP
• Authors: Rakesh D. Barve, Edward F. Grove, Jeffrey Scott Vitter
• Keywords: Cache Replacement Decisions, Competitive Ratio, Page Request, SIAMCOMP 2000