Caching in information-centric satellite networks

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new networking paradigm which is attracting increasing attention from the scientific community. ICN focuses on content handling and distribution rather than host-to-host communications. Satellite systems have always played a key role in content distribution and therefore, they are expected to be fundamental components of the information-centric networking. However, it is not obvious whether solutions that are being developed for terrestrial ICNs are effective in satellite scenarios as well. More specifically, focus of this paper is on in-network content caching, which is an important feature characterizing all ICN proposals but, as we will show, should be re-designed to address the specific characteristics of satellite networks. Indeed, in this paper a novel caching scheme named SatCache is proposed which exploits the broadcast nature of satellite communication media and creates a profile of the preferences of network users in order to estimate their potential interest in a given content. Simulation results given in the paper show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.