King's College London

Caching frequently used data is a common practice to improve query performance in database systems. But traditional algorithms used for cache management prove to be insufficient in distributed environment where groups of users require similar or related data from multiple databases. Repeated data transfers can become a bottleneck leading to long query response time and high resource utilization. Our work focuses on adaptive algorithms to decide on optimal grain of data to be cached and cache refreshment techniques to reduce data transfers. In this paper, we present agent based simulation to investigate and in consequence improve cache management in the distributed database environment. Dynamic grain size and decisions on cache refreshment are made as a result of coordination and interaction between agents. Initial results show better response time and higher data availability compared to traditional caching techniques.