CacheSIM: A Web Cache Simulator Tool Based on Coloured Petri Nets and Java Programming

Efficient policies should be applied in order to decrease the document retrieval time on distributed systems, the network traffic, admission and content replacement for cache systems. Usually, proposed simulators that aim to select better policies have limitation. As an example, it´s difficult to create scenarios with multiple cache systems. Besides, frequently those simulators present a lack of extensibility resources for both custom policies as to include new mechanisms for measuring performance. To address these issues, we developed CacheSIM. It is an extensible platform for simulating distributed cache systems. Using CacheSIM, we can conceive different scenarios based on a hierarchical Coloured Petri Net (CPN) model. We are able to define one replacement policy of fifteen available and one admission policy of two possible ones. Moreover, we can program custom policies and choose them. This paper presents the architecture and native resources of CacheSIM. We have evaluated its extensibility by including two replacement policies based on semantics found in works of the state of the art. We reproduced scenarios and results of those works, as well as we compared to those obtained using native policies. Thus, we can demonstrate the potential of CacheSIM as a simulation tool.