Patent ID: 8843710

Claim:
A data storage system comprising: a plurality of data storage nodes, wherein each data storage node of the plurality of data storage nodes is configured to: send requests to other data storage nodes in the data storage system; receive requests from at least one client device external to the data storage system and from the other data storage nodes in the data storage system, wherein at least three received requests comprise a first request, a second request, and a third request, the first request indicates a first priority flag, the second request indicates a second priority flag, and the third request indicates a third priority flag; order the received requests in a plurality of priority queues based on the first, second, and third priority flags, wherein requests that include the first priority flag correspond to external client requests from the at least one client device and are included in a highest priority queue, requests that include the second or third priority flags correspond to requests from one or more of the other data storage nodes in the data storage system, requests that include the second priority flag are included in a higher priority queue, and requests that include the third priority flag are included in a lower priority queue; and concurrently process the plurality of priority queues according to defined frequencies, wherein requests in the highest priority queue are processed with a first frequency, requests in the higher priority queue are processed with a second frequency, requests in the lower priority queue are processed with a third frequency, the first frequency is greater than the second frequency, and the second frequency is greater than the third frequency.