Content caching is a widely studied technique aimed to reduce the network load imposed by data transmission during peak time while ensuring users' quality of experience. It has been shown that when there is a common link between caches and the server, delivering contents via the coded caching scheme can significantly improve performance over conventional caching. However, finding the optimal content placement is a challenge in the case of heterogeneous users' behaviours. In this paper we consider heterogeneous number of demands and non-uniform content popularity distribution in the case of homogeneous and heterogeneous user preferences. We propose a hybrid coded-uncoded caching scheme to trade-off between popularity and diversity. We derive explicit closed-form expressions of the server load for the proposed hybrid scheme and formulate the corresponding optimization problem. Results show that the proposed hybrid caching scheme can reduce the server load significantly and outperforms the baseline pure coded and pure uncoded and previous works in the literature for both homogeneous and heterogeneous user preferences.
This chapter provides an overview of coded caching in the context of heterogeneous wireless networks. We begin by briefly describing the key idea behind coded caching and then discuss in detail the impact of various aspects such as non-uniform content popularity, multiple cache access, and interference.
In this paper we investigate the performance of caching schemes based on fountain codes in a heterogeneous satellite network. We consider multiple cache-aided hubs which are connected to a geostationary satellite through backhaul links. With the aimof reducing the average number of transmissions over the satellite backhaul link, we propose the use of a caching scheme based on fountain codes. We derive a simple analytical expression of the average backhaul transmission rate and provide a tightupper bound on it. Furthermore, we show how the performance of the fountain code based caching scheme i…
This paper considers the secretive coded caching problem with shared caches in which no user must have access to the files that it did not demand. In a shared cache network, the users are served by a smaller number of helper caches and each user is connected to exactly one helper cache. To ensure the secrecy constraint in shared cache networks, each user is required to have an individual cache of at least unit file size. For this setting, a secretive coded caching scheme was proposed recently in the literature (\enquote{Secretive Coded Caching with Shared Caches}, in \textit{IEEE Communication…
We consider the coded caching problem with shared caches where several users share a cache, but each user has access to only a single cache. For this network, the fundamental limits of coded caching are known for centralized and decentralized settings under uncoded placement. In the centralized case, to achieve the gains offered by coded caching, one requires a sub-packetization which increases exponentially with the number of caches. The dedicated cache networks had a similar issue, and placement delivery arrays (PDAs) were introduced as a solution to it. Using the PDA framework, we propose a…
We propose a decentralized caching policy for wireless heterogeneous networks that makes content placement decisions based on pairwise interactions between cache nodes. We call our proposed scheme γ-exclusion cache placement (GEC), where a parameter γ controls an exclusion radius that discourages nearby caches from storing redundant content. GEC takes into account item popularity and the nodes' caching priorities and leverages negative dependence to relax the classic 0-1 knapsack problem to yield spatially balanced sampling across caches. We show that GEC guarantees a better concentration (red…
We consider the problem of \emph{secretive coded caching} in a shared cache setup where the number of users accessing a particular \emph{helper cache} is more than one, and every user can access exactly one helper cache. In secretive coded caching, the constraint of \emph{perfect secrecy} must be satisfied. It requires that the users should not gain, either from their caches or from the transmissions, any information about the content of the files that they did not request from the server. In order to accommodate the secrecy constraint, our problem setup requires, in addition to a helper cache…
In this paper, we consider a coded caching scenario where users have heterogeneous interests. Taking into consideration the system model originally proposed by Wang and Peleato, for which the end-receiving users are divided into groups according to their file preferences, we develop a novel information-theoretic converse on the optimal worst-case communication load under uncoded cache placement. Interestingly, the developed converse bound, jointly with one of the coded schemes proposed by Wang and Peleato, allows us to characterize the optimal worst-case communication load under uncoded prefet…
This paper considers the multiaccess coded caching systems formulated by Hachem et al., including a central server containing $N$ files connected to $K$ cache-less users through an error-free shared link, and $K$ cache-nodes, each equipped with a cache memory size of $M$ files. Each user has access to $L$ neighbouring cache-nodes with a cyclic wrap-around topology. The coded caching scheme proposed by Hachem et al. suffers from the case that $L$ does not divide $K$, where the needed number of transmissions (a.k.a. load) is at most four times the load expression for the case where $L$ divides $…
Classical coded caching setting avails each user to have one dedicated cache. This is generalized to a more general shared cache scheme and the exact expression for the worst case rate was derived in [E. Parrinello, A. Unsal, P. Elia, "Fundamental Limits of Caching in Heterogeneous Networks with Uncoded Prefetching," available on arXiv:1811.06247 [cs.IT], Nov. 2018]. For this case, an optimal linear error correcting delivery scheme is proposed and an expression for the peak rate is established for the same. Furthermore, a new delivery scheme is proposed, which gives an improved rate for the ca…
Base station cooperation in heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) is a promising approach to improve the network performance, but it also imposes a significant challenge on backhaul. On the other hand, caching at small base stations (SBSs) is considered as an efficient way to reduce backhaul load in HetNets. In this paper, we jointly consider SBS caching and cooperation in a downlink largescale HetNet. We propose two SBS cooperative transmission schemes under random caching at SBSs with the caching distribution as a design parameter. Using tools from stochastic geometry and adopting approp…
The work identifies the fundamental limits of coded caching when the K receiving users share Λ$\leq$ K helper-caches, each assisting an arbitrary number of different users. The main result is the derivation of the exact optimal worst-case delivery time - under the assumption of uncoded cache placement - for any user-to-cache association profile, where each such profile describes how many users are helped by each cache. This is achieved with a new information-theoretic converse that is based on index coding and which proves that a simple XOR-shrinking-and-removal coded-caching scheme is optimal…
Centralized coded caching problem is studied for the two-user scenario, considering heterogeneous cache capacities at the users and private channels from the server to the users, in addition to a shared channel. Optimal caching and delivery strategies that minimize the worst-case delivery latency are presented for an arbitrary number of files. The converse proof follows from the sufficiency of file-index-symmetric caching and delivery codes, while the achievability is obtained through memory-sharing among a number of special memory capacity pairs. The optimal scheme is shown to exploit the pri…
This paper aims to provide an optimization framework for coded caching that accounts for various heterogeneous aspects of practical systems. An optimization theoretic perspective on the seminal work on the fundamental limits of caching by Maddah Ali and Niesen is first developed, whereas it is proved that the coded caching scheme presented in that work is the optimal scheme among a large, non-trivial family of possible caching schemes. The optimization framework is then used to develop a coded caching scheme capable of handling simultaneous non-uniform file length, non-uniform file popularity,…
We consider a network consisting of a file server connected through a shared link to a number of users, each equipped with a cache. Knowing the popularity distribution of the files, the goal is to optimally populate the caches such as to minimize the expected load of the shared link. For a single cache, it is well known that storing the most popular files is optimal in this setting. However, we show here that this is no longer the case for multiple caches. Indeed, caching only the most popular files can be highly suboptimal. Instead, a fundamentally different approach is needed, in which the c…
Local caching is an effective scheme for leveraging the memory of the mobile terminal (MT) and short range communications to save the bandwidth usage and reduce the download delay in the cellular communication system. Specifically, the MTs first cache in their local memories in off-peak hours and then exchange the requested files with each other in the vicinity during peak hours. However, prior works largely overlook MTs' heterogeneity in file preferences and their selfish behaviours. In this paper, we practically categorize the MTs into different interest groups according to the MTs' preferen…
By suppressing repeated content deliveries, wireless caching has the potential to substantially improve the energy efficiency (EE) of the fifth generation (5G) communication networks. In this paper, we propose two novel energy-efficient caching schemes in heterogeneous networks, namely, scalable video coding (SVC)-based fractional caching and SVC-based random caching, which can provide on-demand video services with different perceptual qualities. We derive the expressions for successful transmission probabilities and ergodic service rates. Based on the derivations and the established power con…
Coded caching is an information theoretic scheme to reduce high peak hours traffic by partially prefetching files in the users local storage during low peak hours. This paper considers heterogeneous decentralized caching systems where cache of users and content library files may have distinct sizes. The server communicates with the users through a Gaussian broadcast channel. The main contribution of this paper is a novel modulation strategy to map the multicast messages generated in the coded caching delivery phase to the symbols of a signal constellation, such that users can leverage their ca…
One of the most promising approaches to overcome the uncertainty and dynamic channel variations of millimeter wave (mmW) communications is to deploy dual-mode base stations that integrate both mmW and microwave ($μ$W) frequencies. In particular, if properly designed, such dual-mode base stations can enhance mobility and handover in highly mobile wireless environments. In this paper, a novel approach for analyzing and managing mobility in joint $μ$W-mmW networks is proposed. The proposed approach leverages device-level caching along with the capabilities of dual-mode base stations to minimize h…
Centralized coded caching of popular contents is studied for users with heterogeneous distortion requirements, corresponding to diverse processing and display capabilities of mobile devices. Users' distortion requirements are assumed to be fixed and known, while their particular demands are revealed only after the placement phase. Modeling each file in the database as an independent and identically distributed Gaussian vector, the minimum delivery rate that can satisfy any demand combination within the corresponding distortion target is studied. The optimal delivery rate is characterized for t…
Existing proactive caching policies are designed by assuming that all users request contents with identical activity level at uniformly-distributed or known locations, among which most of the policies are optimized by assuming that user preference is identical to content popularity. However, these assumptions are not true based on recent data analysis. In this paper, we investigate what happens without these assumptions. To this end, we establish a framework to optimize caching policy for base stations exploiting heterogeneous user preference, activity level, and spatial locality. We derive su…
We consider a hierarchical network that consists of mobile users, a two-tiered cellular network (namely small cells and macro cells) and central routers, each of which follows a Poisson point process (PPP). In this scenario, small cells with limited-capacity backhaul are able to cache content under a given set of randomized caching policies and storage constraints. Moreover, we consider three different content popularity models, namely fixed content popularity, distance-dependent and load-dependent, in order to model the spatio-temporal behavior of users' content request patterns. We derive ex…
This paper considers heterogeneous coded caching where the users have unequal distortion requirements. The server is connected to the users via an error-free multicast link and designs the users' cache sizes subject to a total memory budget. In particular, in the placement phase, the server jointly designs the users' cache sizes and the cache contents. To serve the users' requests, in the delivery phase, the server transmits signals that satisfy the users' distortion requirements. An optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the worst-case delivery load subject to the total cache m…
Coded caching utilizes pre-fetching during off-peak hours and multi-casting for delivery in order to balance the traffic load in communication networks. Several works have studied the achievable peak and average rates under different conditions: variable file lengths or popularities, variable cache sizes, decentralized networks, etc. However, very few have considered the possibility of heterogeneous user profiles, despite modern content providers are investing heavily in categorizing users according to their habits and preferences. This paper proposes three coded caching schemes with uncoded p…
This work considers the coded caching problem with shared caches, where users share the caches, and each user gets access only to one cache. The user-to-cache association is assumed to be known at the server during the placement phase. We focus on the schemes derived using placement delivery arrays (PDAs). The PDAs were originally designed to address the sub-packetization bottleneck of coded caching in a dedicated cache setup. We observe that in the setup of this paper permuting the columns of the PDA results in schemes with different performance for the same problem, but the sub-packetization…
Heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) provide a powerful approach to meet the dramatic mobile traffic growth, but also impose a significant challenge on backhaul. Caching and multicasting at macro and pico base stations (BSs) are two promising methods to support massive content delivery and reduce backhaul load in HetNets. In this paper, we jointly consider caching and multicasting in a large-scale cache-enabled HetNet with backhaul constraints. We propose a hybrid caching design consisting of identical caching in the macro-tier and random caching in the pico-tier, and a corresponding mult…
In this paper, we propose a novel secure random caching scheme for large-scale multi-antenna heterogeneous wireless networks, where the base stations (BSs) deliver randomly cached confidential contents to the legitimate users in the presence of passive eavesdroppers as well as active jammers. In order to safeguard the content delivery, we consider that the BSs transmits the artificial noise together with the useful signals. By using tools from stochastic geometry, we first analyze the average reliable transmission probability (RTP) and the average confidential transmission probability (CTP), w…
This paper focuses on edge caching in dense heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets), in which small base stations (SBSs) with limited cache size store the popular contents, and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) aided macro base stations provide wireless self-backhaul when SBSs require the non-cached contents. Our aim is to address the effects of cell load and hit probability on the successful content delivery (SCD), and present the minimum required base station density for avoiding the access overload in an arbitrary small cell and backhaul overload in an arbitrary macrocell. The…
Heterogenous wireless networks (Hetnets) provide a powerful approach to meet the massive growth in traffic demands, but also impose a significant challenge on backhaul. Caching at small base stations (BSs) and wireless small cell backhaul have been proposed as attractive solutions to address this new challenge. In this paper, we consider the optimal caching and user association to minimize the total time to satisfy the average demands in cached-enabled Hetnets with wireless backhaul. We formulate this problem as a mixed discrete-continuous optimization for given bandwidth and cache resources. …
A two-tier heterogeneous cellular network (HCN) with intra-tier and inter-tier dependence is studied. The macro cell deployment follows a Poisson point process (PPP) and two different clustered point processes are used to model the cache-enabled small cells. Under this model, we derive approximate expressions in terms of finite integrals for the average delivery rate considering inter-tier and intra-tier dependence. On top of the fact that cache size drastically improves the performance of small cells in terms of average delivery rate, we show that rate splitting of limited-backhaul induces no…
Caching at the wireless edge can be used to keep up with the increasing demand for high-definition wireless video streaming. By prefetching popular content into memory at wireless access points or end-user devices, requests can be served locally, relieving strain on expensive backhaul. In addition, using network coding allows the simultaneous serving of distinct cache misses via common coded multicast transmissions, resulting in significantly larger load reductions compared to those achieved with traditional delivery schemes. Most prior works simply treat video content as fixed-size files that…
In this paper, we study the probabilistic caching for an $N$-tier wireless heterogeneous network (HetNet) using stochastic geometry. A general and tractable expression of the successful delivery probability (SDP) is first derived. We then optimize the caching probabilities for maximizing the SDP in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. The problem is proved to be convex and solved efficiently. We next establish an interesting connection between $N$-tier HetNets and single-tier networks. Unlike the single-tier network where the optimal performance only depends on the cache size, the opti…
To make better use of file diversity provided by random caching and improve the successful transmission probability (STP) of a file, we consider retransmissions with random discontinuous transmission (DTX) in a large-scale cache-enabled heterogeneous wireless network (HetNet) employing random caching. We analyze and optimize the STP in two mobility scenarios, i.e., the high mobility scenario and the static scenario. First, in each scenario, by using tools from stochastic geometry, we obtain the closed-form expressions for the STP in the general and low signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) thresh…
Caching at base stations (BSs) is a promising way to offload traffic and eliminate backhaul bottleneck in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). In this paper, we investigate the optimal content placement maximizing the successful offloading probability in a cache-enabled HetNet where a tier of multi-antenna macro BSs (MBSs) is overlaid with a tier of helpers with caches. Based on probabilistic caching framework, we resort to stochastic geometry theory to derive the closed-form successful offloading probability and formulate the caching probability optimization problem, which is not concave in gene…
The work explores the fundamental limits of coded caching in heterogeneous networks where multiple ($N_0$) senders/antennas, serve different users which are associated (linked) to shared caches, where each such cache helps an arbitrary number of users. Under the assumption of uncoded cache placement, the work derives the exact optimal worst-case delay and DoF, for a broad range of user-to-cache association profiles where each such profile describes how many users are helped by each cache. This is achieved by presenting an information-theoretic converse based on index coding that succinctly cap…
We study the problem of caching optimization in heterogeneous networks with mutual interference and per-file rate constraints from an energy efficiency perspective. A setup is considered in which two cache-enabled transmitter nodes and a coordinator node serve two users. We analyse and compare two approaches: (i) a cooperative approach where each of the transmitters might serve either of the users and (ii) a non-cooperative approach in which each transmitter serves only the respective user. We formulate the cache allocation optimization problem so that the overall system power consumption is m…
In cellular networks, the densification of connected devices and base stations engender the ever-growing traffic intensity, and caching popular contents with smart management is a promising way to alleviate such consequences. Our research extends the previously proposed analysis of three-tier cache enabled Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). The main contributions are threefold. We consider the more realistic assumption; that is, the distribution of small base stations is following Poisson-Poisson cluster processes, which reflects the real situations of geographic restriction, user dense areas, …
Decentralized coded caching scheme, introduced by Maddah-Ali and Niesen, assumes that the caches are filled with no coordination. This work identifies a decentralized coded caching scheme -- under the assumption of uncoded placement -- for shared cache network, where each cache serves multiple users. Each user has access to only a single cache and the number of caches is less than or equal to the number of users. For this setting, we derive the optimal worst-case delivery time for any user-to-cache association profile where each such profile describes the number of users served by each cache. …
In this paper, we study shared cache coded caching (SC-CC): a set of caches serves a larger set of users; each user access one cache, and a cache may serve many users. For this problem, under uncoded placement, Parrinello, Ünsal, and Elia showed an optimal SC-CC scheme, in which the subpacketization level depends upon the number of caches. We show an SC-CC scheme where the subpacketization level does not directly depend upon the number of users or caches; any number of caches and users can be accommodated for a fixed subpacketization level. Furthermore, new caches can be added without re-doing…
We address a centralized caching problem with unequal cache sizes. We consider a system with a server of files connected through a shared error-free link to a group of cache-enabled users where one subgroup has a larger cache size than the other. We propose an explicit caching scheme for the considered system aimed at minimizing the load of worst-case demands over the shared link. As suggested by numerical evaluations, our scheme improves upon the best existing explicit scheme by having a lower worst-case load; also, our scheme performs within a multiplicative factor of 1.11 from the scheme th…
In this work we investigate optimal geographical caching in heterogeneous cellular networks where different types of base stations (BSs) have different cache capacities. Users request files from a content library according to a known probability distribution. The performance metric is the total hit probability, which is the probability that a user at an arbitrary location in the plane will find the content that it requires in one of the BSs that it is covered by. We consider the problem of optimally placing content in all BSs jointly. As this problem is not convex, we provide a heuristic schem…
Coded caching and delivery is studied taking into account the correlations among the contents in the library. Correlations are modeled as common parts shared by multiple contents; that is, each file in the database is composed of a group of subfiles, where each subfile is shared by a different subset of files. The number of files that include a certain subfile is defined as the level of commonness of this subfile. First, a correlation-aware uncoded caching scheme is proposed, and it is shown that the optimal placement for this scheme gives priority to the subfiles with the highest levels of co…
Recently coded caching has emerged as a promising means to handle continuously increasing wireless traffic. However, coded caching requires users to cooperate in order to minimize the overall transmission rate. How users with heterogeneous preferences cooperate in coded caching and how to calculate the resulting caching gains are still open problems. In this paper, a two-phase cache-aided network is investigated, in which users with heterogeneous preferences are served by a base station through a shared link. Effective throughput is considered as a performance metric. It is proved that the ach…
This work elevates coded caching networks from their purely information-theoretic framework to a stochastic setting, by exploring the effect of random user activity and by exploiting correlations in the activity patterns of different users. In particular, the work studies the $K$-user cache-aided broadcast channel with a limited number of cache states, and explores the effect of cache state association strategies in the presence of arbitrary user activity levels; a combination that strikes at the very core of the coded caching problem and its crippling subpacketization bottleneck. We first pre…
In this paper we investigate the problem of optimal cache placement in the presence of malicious mobile users in heterogeneous networks, where small-cell base stations are equipped with caches in order to reduce the overall backhaul load. In particular the malicious users aim at maximizing the congestion of files at the backhaul, i.e., at maximizing the average backhaul rate. For that adversarial model, we derive the achievable average backhaul rate of the heterogeneous network. Moreover, we study the system performance from a game-theoretic perspective, by naturally considering a zero-sum Sta…
This paper studies physical-layer security for a cache-enabled heterogeneous cellular network comprised of a macro base station and multiple small base stations (SBSs). We investigate a joint design on caching placement and file delivery for realizing secure and energy-efficient transmissions against randomly distributed eavesdroppers. We propose a novel hybrid "most popular content" and "largest content diversity" caching placement policy to distribute files of different popularities. Depending on the availability and placement of the requested file, we employ three cooperative transmission s…
In this work, we study coded placement in caching systems where the users have unequal cache sizes and demonstrate its performance advantage. In particular, we propose a caching scheme with coded placement for three-user systems that outperforms the best caching scheme with uncoded placement. In our proposed scheme, users cache both uncoded and coded pieces of the files, and the coded pieces at the users with large memories are decoded using the unicast/multicast signals intended to serve users with smaller memories. Furthermore, we extend the proposed scheme to larger systems and show the red…
In this paper we investigate the problem of optimal cache placement under secrecy constraints in heterogeneous networks, where small-cell base stations are equipped with caches to reduce the overall backhaul load. For two models for eavesdropping attacks, we formally derive the necessary conditions for secrecy and we derive the corresponding achievable backhaul rate. In particular we formulate the optimal caching schemes with secrecy constraints as a convex optimization problem. We then thoroughly investigate the backhaul rate performance of the heterogeneous network with secrecy constraints u…
Decentralized coded caching is studied for a content server with $N$ files, each of size $F$ bits, serving $K$ active users, each equipped with a cache of distinct capacity. It is assumed that the users' caches are filled in advance during the off-peak traffic period without the knowledge of the number of active users, their identities, or the particular demands. User demands are revealed during the peak traffic period, and are served simultaneously through an error-free shared link. A new decentralized coded caching scheme is proposed for this scenario, and it is shown to improve upon the sta…
Cache-aided coded content delivery is studied for devices with diverse quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, specified by a different average distortion target. The network consists of a server holding a database of independent contents, and users equipped with local caches of different capacities. User caches are filled by the server during a low traffic period without the knowledge of particular user demands. As opposed to the current literature, which assumes that the users request files in their entirety, it is assumed that the users in the system have distinct distortion requirements; an…
Caching multimedia contents at the network edge is a key solution to decongest the amount of traffic in the backhaul link. In this paper, we extend and analyze the coded caching technique [1] in an unexplored scenario, i.e. at the edge of two-tier heterogeneous networks with an arbitrary number of users. We characterize the performance of such scheme by deriving a closed-form expression of the average backhaul load and reveal a significant gain compared to other benchmark caching schemes proposed in the literature.
We consider private information retrieval (PIR) of a single file out of $K$ files from $N$ non-colluding databases with heterogeneous storage constraints $\mathbf{m}=(m_1, \cdots, m_N)$. The aim of this work is to jointly design the content placement phase and the information retrieval phase in order to minimize the download cost in the PIR phase. We characterize the optimal PIR download cost as a linear program. By analyzing the structure of the optimal solution of this linear program, we show that, surprisingly, the optimal download cost in our heterogeneous case matches its homogeneous coun…
