Frame Selection for Dynamic Caching Adjustment in Video Proxy Servers

By caching video data, a video proxy server close to the clients can be used to assist video delivery and alleviate the load of video servers. We assume a video can be partially cached and a certain number of video frames are stored in the proxy server. In our setting, the proxy server is allowed to cache the passing data from the video server. A video provides several options (levels) in terms of bandwidth requirement over the server-proxy path. For each video, the proxy server decides to cache a smaller amount of data at a lower level or to accumulate more data to reach a higher level. The proxy server can dynamically adjust the cached video data by choosing an appropriate level based on the network condition or the popularity of the video. We propose a frame selection scheme, Dynamic Chunk Algorithm, to determine which frames are to be cached in the proxy server for the dynamic caching adjustment scenario. The algorithm guarantees the rate constraint over the server-proxy path to be satisfied for each level. This approach also maintains the set of cached frames at a higher level as a superset of the cached frames at a lower level. Hence, it enforces the proxy server to simply cache more data without dropping frames when it intends to reduce network bandwidth consumption for a video and vice versa.