Patent ID: 7130872

Claim:
A multi-tiered caching system, comprising: a plurality of caches for storing and retrieving objects of a first type between a Web server and one or more clients, wherein each entry in each of the cache comprises an object and a key associated with the object, wherein the plurality of caches includes an nth-level cache and a plurality of (n+1)th-level caches, wherein n is angy integer number, n≧1, wherein each object in each entry in the (n+1)th-Ievel cache comprises an object of the first type, wherein each (n+1)th-level cache is configured to store multiple versions of a Web page corresponding to a single URL, and wherein each object in each entry in the nth-level cache comprises an identifier of a corresponding (n+1)th-level cache; and a web page caching system implemented in a network transformation proxy; wherein the nth-level cache comprises a first-level cache, wherein keys associated with objects in the first-level cache comprise URLs, and wherein objects in the first-level cache comprise identifiers of second level caches; wherein the (n+1)th-level cache comprises a second-level cache, wherein keys associated with objects in the second-level cache comprise versions of corresponding URLs, and wherein objects in the second-level cache comprise Web pages.