Detection and exploitation of file working sets
Carl Tait, Dan Duchamp · 2002
The work habits of many individuals yield file access patterns that are quite pronounced and can be regarded as defining working sets of files used for particular applications. A client management technique for detecting these patterns and then exploiting them to successfully prefetch files from servers is described. Trace-driven simulations show the technique substantially increases file cache hit rate in a single-user environment. Successful file prefetching carries three major advantages: applications run faster, there is less burst load placed on the network, and properly loaded client caches can better survive network outages. The technique requires little extra code, and-because it is simply an augmentation of the standard LRU client cache management algorithm-is easily incorporated into existing software.>