Efficient LRU-Based Buffering in a LAN Remote Caching Architecture

The possibility of fast access to the main memory of remote sites has been advanced as a potential performance improvement in distributed systems. Even if a page is not available in local memory, sites need not do a disk access. Instead, the sites can use efficient mechanisms that support rapid request/response exchanges in order to access pages that are currently buffered at a remote site. Hardware and software support in such a remote caching architecture must also include algorithms that determine which pages should be buffered at what sites. When each site uses the classic LRU replacement algorithm, performance can be much worse than optimal in many system configurations. Because sites do not coordinate individual decisions, overall system buffering/caching decisions yield very inefficient global configurations. This paper proposes an easily implementable modification of the LRU replacement algorithm for LAN environments that reduces replication. The algorithm substantially improves hit-ratios-and thus performance-over a wide range of parameters. The relatively simple LAN topology implies that much less state information need be available for good replacement decisions compared to general network topologies. Two implications of two variations of the algorithm are explored. In an environment where the network is not a performance bottleneck, and where performance is memory-limited, performance of the proposed replacement algorithm is shown to be close to optimal.