Edge caching in Small Cell and D2D Networks

Supervisor: Professor Yue Chen

Given the exponential growth of mobile data traffic and the consistent decline of the cost per stored bit due to the fast development of capacity of modern storage units, edge caching has drawn increasing attention from industry and academia as a technology which is able to alleviate the burden on backhaul links in small cell networks and at the same time increase quality of experience (QoE) by reducing content delivery delay. In edge caching, popular content can be cached at the network edge, either at a small cell base station or directly at the user terminals for Device-to-Device (D2D) communications. There are many challenges in designing efficient edge caching strategy in mobile networks due to various constraints and trade-offs, which need to be taken into consideration. For example, constraints on energy and bandwidth, and trade-off between density of small cells and storage capacities. We are offering a PhD candidate the opportunity to investigate and develop frameworks for modelling and evaluating the efficiency of edge caching strategies for user experience enhancement in small cell and D2D networks.