Performance Improvements Through Recommendations for a PLC Network with Collaborative Caching in Remote Areas

The emergence of Power Line Communication (PLC) technology has facilitated the expansion of broadband access networks in remote areas, by utilizing existing wired power infrastructure. However, the growing demand for data, driven by the popularity of communication services, presents a formidable challenge to the underlying PLC technology. Collaborative caching involves the sharing of cached content among neighboring nodes, thereby improving cache hit ratio (CHR), reducing network and backhaul congestion, and ultimately enhancing network performance. Our research proposes a recommendation system integrated into the collaborative caching mechanism on a PLC network that suggests relevant content to the users based on users' preferences and historical usage patterns leading to an increase in CHR and a reduction in network congestion. The results indicate that the proposed system significantly improves network performance by reducing download delay and saving precious backhaul link resources thus making PLC networks more effective for remote areas.