Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implement techniques for processing data packets in a computer network. The computer network includes a network-attached storage appliance generating data packets and transmitting the generated data packets to the computer network, and a multiport network device receiving the generated data packets. The data packets are generated by packetizing a file, where the file has one or more associated file attributes. The network-attached storage appliance inserts a network-attached storage content descriptor in each generated data packet, where the content descriptor identifies one or more of the associated file attributes. The multiport network device is configured to process the received data packets according to the content descriptor, and the multiport network device processes the received data packets at wire speed.