Abstract: Embodiments of this invention provide service aware network caching. A service aware network caching device determines a service priority for traffic received from a client targeted towards a storage server connected to the caching device. The caching device transmits a response to the client based on the service priority determined by the caching device. For a particular service priority, the caching device may be configured to retrieve and store other data related to the data requested in the traffic in anticipation of subsequent requests from a client for the related data. For a particular service priority, in order to service traffic associated with a higher service priority, the caching device may also be configured to disconnect the caching device's connections to other clients or servers when the connections are associated with lower service priorities and a particular congestion state is detected.

Abstract: Embodiments of this invention provide service aware network caching. A service aware network caching device determines a service priority for traffic received from a client targeted towards a storage server connected to the caching device. The caching device transmits a response to the client based on the service priority determined by the caching device. For a particular service priority, the caching device may be configured to retrieve and store other data related to the data requested in the traffic in anticipation of subsequent requests from a client for the related data. For a particular service priority, in order to service traffic associated with a higher service priority, the caching device may also be configured to disconnect the caching device's connections to other clients or servers when the connections are associated with lower service priorities and a particular congestion state is detected.