The multikey Web cache simulator: a platform for designing proxy cache management techniques

Proxy caches have become an important mechanism to reduce latencies. Efficient management techniques for proxy caches which exploits Web-objects inherent characteristics are an essential key to reach good performance. One important segment of the replacement algorithms being applied today are the multikey algorithms that use several key or object characteristics to decide which object or objects must be replaced. This feature is not considered in most of the current simulators. In this paper we propose a proxy-cache platform to check the performance of Web object based on multikey management techniques and algorithms. The proposed platform is coded in a modular way, which allows the implementation of new algorithms or policies proposals in an easy and robust manner. In addition to the classical performance metrics like the hit ratio and the byte hit ratio, the proposed framework also offers the response time perceived by users.