Utility-Driven Edge Caching Optimization with Deep Reinforcement Learning under Uncertain Content Popularity

Efficient edge caching is essential for maximizing utility in video streaming systems, especially under constraints such as limited storage capacity and dynamically fluctuating content popularity. Utility, defined as the benefit obtained per unit of cache bandwidth usage, degrades when static or greedy caching strategies fail to adapt to changing demand patterns. To address this, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based caching framework built upon the proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm. Our approach formulates edge caching as a sequential decision-making problem and introduces a reward model that balances cache hit performance and utility by prioritizing high-demand, high-quality content while penalizing degraded quality delivery. We construct a realistic synthetic dataset that captures both temporal variations and shifting content popularity to validate our model. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method improves utility by up to 135.9% and achieves an average improvement of 22.6% compared to traditional greedy algorithms and long short-term memory (LSTM)-based prediction models. Moreover, our method consistently performs well across a variety of utility functions, workload distributions, and storage limitations, underscoring its adaptability and robustness in dynamic video caching environments.