Cache replacement policies revisited: the case of P2P traffic

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications generate a large part if not most of today's Internet traffic. The large volume of this traffic (thus the high potential benefits of caching) and the large cache sizes required (thus nontrivial costs associated with caching) only underline that efficient cache replacement policies are important in this case. P2P file-sharing traffic has several characteristics that distinguish it from well studied Web traffic and that require a focused study of efficient cache management policies. This paper uses trace driven simulations to compare traditional cache replacement policies with new policies that try to exploit characteristics of the P2P file-sharing traffic generated by applications using the FastTrack protocol.