Application prioritization in a stateless protocol

A method of providing application-specific prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:

• receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;
• classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information;
• and
• forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.

A system for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, comprising:

• means for determining, by an application, priority information for outbound messages of the application;
• means for annotating the outbound messages with the determined priority information;
• and
• means for transmitting the annotated outbound messages from the application, wherein the annotations enable devices in a network path of each transmitted message to prioritize delivery of the message to a recipient.

A system for providing application-specific prioritization in a networking environment, comprising:

• means for receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;
• means for classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information;
• and
• means for forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.

A computer program product for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

• computer-readable program code means for determining, by an application, priority information for outbound messages of the application;
• computer-readable program code means for annotating the outbound messages with the determined priority information;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for transmitting the annotated outbound messages from the application, wherein the annotations enable devices in a network path of each transmitted message to prioritize delivery of the message to a recipient.

A computer program product for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

• computer-readable program code means for receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;
• computer-readable program code means for classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.