Wireless network virtualization has been well recognized as a way to improvethe flexibility of wireless networks by decoupling the functionality of thesystem and implementing infrastructure and spectrum as services. Recent studieshave shown that caching provides a better performance to serve the contentrequests from mobile users. In this paper, we propose that \emph{caching can beapplied as a service} in mobile networks, i.e., different service providers(SPs) cache their contents in the storages of wireless facilities that owned bymobile network operators (MNOs). Specifically, we focus on the scenario of\emph{small-cell networks}, where cache-enabled small-cell base stations (SBSs)are the facilities to cache contents. To deal with the competition for storagesamong multiple SPs, we design a mechanism based on multi-object auctions, wherethe time-dependent feature of system parameters and the frequency of contentreplacement are both taken into account. Simulation results show that oursolution leads to a satisfactory outcome.
展开▼