Patent ID: 8473643

Claim:
A storage networking system comprising a plurality of subsystems coupled with a network, the plurality of subsystems including an initiator subsystem having an initiator I/O (input/output) control unit, and a plurality of target subsystems each having a target I/O control unit, wherein the initiator subsystem is configured to: place priority information in packet address of an I/O command packet, the priority information being based on a priority table; send the I/O command packet to one or more of the plurality of target I/O control units; and receive a return I/O packet from each of the target I/O control units that received the sent I/O command packet, the return I/O packet having the same priority information; wherein the priority information provided in the priority table is priority of storing I/O data; and wherein the I/O data is transferred according to the priority information placed in the packet address of the I/O command packet.