Building a web cache system - Architectural Considerations

Based on experiments and experiences with web caching systems this paper gives guidelines and outlines strategies for building a functional web cahcing system with cooperating web caches. Drawing on the experiences in the EC 4th Fram-work project DESIRE, funded by the European union, this document identifies some of the pitfalls and possibilities of building web caching meshes. The architecture of a web caching mesh depends very much on the network topology and the cost factors of the network. The emphasis is on building Internet Service Provider (ISP) wide caching systems, but architectural considerations for inter-network agreements on web caching is discussed and examples of policies for international web caching agreements are given. The impact of web caching as a routing issue is discussed.