Patent ID: 7353339

Claim:
A method for cache management, comprising: receiving an incoming request to access a first data block, wherein the incoming request is one of a read request and a write request; determining a probability of how likely a second data block may be accessed based on the access of the first data block, wherein the probability is determined using a Bayesian networks technique; determining whether the probability exceeds a read ahead threshold; prefetching the second data block in response to determining that the probability exceeds the read ahead threshold; receiving an administrative command; and in response to receiving the administrative command, determining whether a percentage of times a prefetched data block was accessed exceeds a success threshold; in response to determining that the percentage does not exceeds the success threshold, updating the read ahead threshold so that fewer data blocks are prefetched upon receiving additional incoming requests to access data block; and updating a hop count threshold, wherein the hop count threshold identifies a distance, wherein the hop count threshold is updated based on access statistics including a number of write requests versus read requests that were received during a certain period of time, and wherein the Bayesian networks technique is used to learn access patterns.