Patent ID: 7337236

Claim:
A method of providing message prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of: determining, by each of at least two application programs, per-message classification input information for each of a plurality of outbound messages generated by the application program, wherein the per-message classification input information for the outbound messages generated by at least one of the application programs differs among at least two of those outbound messages; storing, by each of the application programs in a message header of each of the outbound messages generated by the application program, the determined per-message classification input information for the outbound message; and transmitting the outbound messages from the application programs to a network device, wherein the network device is configured to: use the stored classification input information in combination with prioritization policy information accessible to the network device to assign per-message priority information that balances message handling priority among the plurality of outbound messages generated by the application programs; store the assigned per-message priority information and an encrypted version of the classification input information in the message header of each of the outbound messages in a particular manner when forwarding the outbound messages to an intended receipt thereof in an order that is determined using the assigned per-message priority information, wherein the particular manner causes the encrypted version to be automatically returned to the network device in a related subsequent inbound message, if any, from the intended recipient that receives the forwarded outbound message; and decrypt the encrypted version of the classification input information to yield the classification input information for use when assigning the per-message priority information to the related subsequent inbound message.