Coded Caching with Heterogeneous Cache Sizes and Link Qualities: The Two-User Case

The centralized coded caching problem is studied under heterogeneous cache sizes and channel qualities from the server to the users, focusing on the two-user case. More specifically, a server holding N files is considered to be serving two users with different cache sizes, each requesting a single file, and it is assumed that in addition to the shared common link, each user also has a private link from the server available during the delivery phase. Optimal caching and delivery strategies that minimize the worst-case delivery time are presented for any number of files, N . The converse proof benefits from Tian’s observation that it suffices to consider file-index symmetric caching schemes, while the achievability scheme is obtained through memory-sharing among certain special points. The optimal scheme is shown to exploit all of the private link capacities by transmitting part of the corresponding user’s request in an uncoded manner. When there are no private links, the results presented here improve upon the known results in the literature for i) equal cache sizes and arbitrary number of files; and ii) unequal cache sizes and N = 2 files.