Web Caching and Replication

12.3. Taxonomy

In this section we survey existing and proposed prefetching techniques. The survey is organized according to a five-dimension taxonomy:

1. What is prefetched? The term prefetching conventionally implies data, that is, a Web object and possibly its embedded images. However, other choices are possible and often less risky.

2. Is the prefetching transparent or nontransparent? A nontransparent prefetching mechanism may be based on user input at the client (being nontransparent to the user), rely on cooperation from the server (being nontransparent to the server), or both.

3. Is prefetched data pushed by the server or pulled by the client, and where are the prefetching decisions made? The answers to these questions are often determined by the ...