On Optimal Dynamic Caching in Relay Networks

We investigate dynamic content caching in relay networks where an intermediate relay station (RS) can adaptively cache data content based on their varying popularity. With the objective of minimizing the time average cost of content delivery, we formulate and study the problem of optimal RS cache allocation when the popularities of data content are unknown apriori to the network. While optimal dynamic cache control suffers the curse of dimensionality, we develop a fundamental lower bound on the achievable cost by any caching policy. Inspired by the structure of such lower bound, we develop a reduced-complexity policy that is shown numerically to perform close to the lower bound.