Multi-criteria decision algorithms for efficient content delivery in content networks

Today’s Internet is prominently used for content distribution. Various platforms such as content delivery networks (CDNs) have become an integral part of the digital content ecosystem. Most recently, the information-centric networking (ICN) paradigm proposes the adoption of native content naming for secure and efficient content delivery. This further enhances the flexibility of content access where a content request can be served by any source within the Internet. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a multi-criteria decision algorithm for efficient content delivery applicable for content networks in general (among others, CDN and ICN). Our algorithm computes the best available source and path for serving content requests taking into account information about content transfer requirements, location of the consumer, location of available content servers, content server load and content delivery paths between content servers and consumer. The proposed algorithm exploits two closely related processes. The first level discovers multiple content delivery paths and gathers their respective transfer characteristics. This discovery process is based on long-term network measurements and performed offline. The second process is invoked for each content request to find the best combined content server and delivery path. The cooperation between both levels allows our algorithm to increase the number of satisfied content requests thanks to efficient utilisation of network and server resources. The proposed decision algorithm was evaluated by simulation using Internet scale network model. The results confirm the effectiveness gain of content network architectures that introduce network awareness. Moreover, the simulation process allows for a comparison between different routing algorithms and, especially, between single and multipath routing algorithms.