It is mainly used in the WAN links and reduces a lot of network traffic for the repeated files and identical information. It reduces the network overload, congestion and bandwidth related issues in the networks. The major benefits of this technology include the following.
How it Works?
- A network user accesses a web page or a file.
- The request is analyzed by the network and is being redirected towards the cache of the local server or network.
- If the required web page is not available in the local network then the request is forwarded towards the original server.
- The original server fulfils the request by sending the required web page to the cache server. The cache saves a copy of the requested page and delivers the content to the client or the request originator.
- Again, if another user requests for the same web page, the network analyze the request and redirect the user towards the local caching server.
Network caching technology is very important in the ISPs and Enterprise networks. Suppose that 100s of ISP users send request for the same web page and if the ISP has the same web page in its cache then the users will be redirected towards the cache for that particular web page and the contents of that web page will be delivered to the user at very high speed.
A caching technique can be implemented in the network by various methods as mentioned below.
- Proxy Servers
- Browser-Based Cache
- Network-based shared caching
- Reverse proxy caching
- WCCP Network Caching (By Cisco Systems). It provides the network load balancing and localizes the network traffic.
Caching is the best way of freeing up the network resources and accelerating the network applications to provide the optimized performance to the corporate users. There are many hardware devices and software applications that are used for the Caching.