An apparatus comprising a first content oriented network architecture (CONA) node configured to couple to at least one second CONA nodes and implement collaborative caching in accordance with criteria comprising at least one content caching objective and at least one network operational objective, wherein the content caching objectives are in accordance with the network operational objectives. Also disclosed is a network component comprising a caching policy engine configured to receive network policy information and compute a caching policy in accordance with the network policy information, an inter-cache data transfer component coupled to the caching policy engine and configured to fetch a plurality of content object portions in accordance with the caching policy, a storage engine coupled to the inter-cache data transfer component and configured to cache the content object portions, and an eviction algorithm component coupled to the storage engine and configured to determine which, if any, of the cached content object portions are to be evicted.