[SNMP4J] SNMP Agent Caching Expensive Values

[mike keller]

I have a basic question about "caching" that I haven't seen explicitly addressed in my searching. The SNMP4J instrumentation pdf mentions calling the native "setValue" method to cache a value that is expensive to acquire upon external request; then, of course, the value is issued to the requester. What I'm missing is, the code or logic that takes advantage of your setting/saving the value. If each request comes through this single method which acquires, sets, and then returns the value, what is the value of caching? 

I may have missed some footnote, but is the implication that you must implement some logic to see if the value has been recently requested and then act accordingly, or does some part of the framework detect and use your cached value ahead of time--if it detects duplicate requests in a tight interval?