Web caching and prefetching with cyclic model analysis of web object sequences

Abstract

Web caching is the process in which web objects are temporarily stored to reduce bandwidth consumption, server load and latency. Web prefetching is the process of fetching web objects from the server before they are actually requested by the client. Integration of caching and prefetching can be very beneficial as the two techniques can support each other. By implementing this integrated scheme in a client-side proxy, the perceived latency can be reduced for not one but many users. In this paper, we propose a new integrated caching and prefetching policy called the WCP-CMA which makes use of a profit-driven caching policy that takes into account the periodicity and cyclic behaviour of the web access sequences for deriving prefetching rules. Our experimental results have shown a 10%-15% increase in the hit ratios of the cached objects and 5%-10% decrease in delay compared to the existing scheme.