Adaptive File Cache Management for Mobile Computing

By performing file system operations on cached copies of files mobile users reduce their need to access files across the network. Effective cache management strategies will limit use of the network to a small number of read misses and periodic reintegration of changes (updates), and thus can shield the mobile user from changes in bandwidth that will have a significant impact on performance. This paper addresses adaptive approaches to file cache management in mobile environments. The results of a trace-driven simulation study demonstrate that adaptive adjustment of the cache block size can improve performance for mobile users at acceptable cost.