On the Optimal Memory-Load Tradeoff of Coded Caching for Location-Based Content

TL;DR

This paper investigates the optimal tradeoff between memory and load in coded caching systems for location-based content, proposing bounds and schemes that are optimal or near-optimal under various network configurations.

Contribution

It formulates a new coded caching problem for location-dependent content, derives a converse bound, and demonstrates the optimality of a simple scheme within a factor of 3.

Findings

Achieves a tight converse bound under uncoded cache placement.

Proposes a simple scheme that is order optimal within a factor of 3.

Characterizes the exact optimal worst-case load for multiaccess topology when L ≥ 2.

Abstract

Caching at the wireless edge nodes is a promising way to boost the spatial and spectral efficiency, for the sake of alleviating networks from content-related traffic. Coded caching originally introduced by Maddah-Ali and Niesen significantly speeds up communication efficiency by transmitting multicast messages simultaneously useful to multiple users. Most prior works on coded caching are based on the assumption that each user may request all content in the library. However, in many applications the users are interested only in a limited set of content that depends on their location. Motivated by these considerations, this paper formulates the coded caching problem for location-based content with edge cache nodes. The considered problem includes a content server with access to $N$ location-based files (e.g., High-Definition maps), $K$ edge cache nodes located at different regions, and $K$ users (i.e., vehicles) each of which is in the serving region of one cache node and can retrieve the cached content of this cache node with negligible cost. Depending on the location, each user only requests a file from a location-dependent subset of the library. The objective is to minimize the worst-case load. For this novel coded caching problem, we propose a highly non-trivial converse bound under uncoded cache placement, which shows that a simple achievable scheme is optimal under uncoded cache placement. In addition, this achievable scheme is also proved to be generally order optimal within a factor of $3$. Finally, we extend the coded caching problem for location-based content to the multiaccess coded caching topology originally proposed by Hachem et al., where each user is connected to $L$ nearest cache nodes. When $L \geq 2$, we characterize the exact optimality on the worst-case load.