Router Modelling and Packet Level Cache Implementation for Content Aware TCP (CATCP)

Internet is more content oriented than ever before, In today's Internet scalable content access is provided by content distribution networks (CDN), application specific caches, proxies etc. The proliferation of these systems is complex and expensive. In the past few years many data-oriented or information-centric network architectures have been proposed such as DONA, PSIRP, CCN etc., but these new clean-state architecture proposals have seen little deployment because of its expensive initial costs. In the thesis, we present CATCP - Content Aware TCP an incrementally deployable approach to bring content-aware and in-network caching to TCP. In our approach, content-aware senders cooperate with in-network segment caches, integrated with routers and other middle boxes, to support scalable content delivery to unmodified clients. This effectively supports opportunistic caching for time-shifted content access, as well as synchronous multicast delivery to concurrent receivers. Our approach is application protocol-independent, and provides support beyond HTTP caching or managed CDNs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our design using measurements of a Linux-based prototype implementation, and performance evaluation using ns-3 simulations along and Network Simulation Cradle. The results show CATCP can effectively reduce server side and network load