1. A method of initiating a read-ahead request, the method comprising: before receiving a future read request sent by an application: projecting an interarrival time for the future read request based on identifying arrival times of read requests previously received from the application, projecting a time in servicing the future read request based on identifying a time in servicing at least one of the read requests previously received from the application, calculating a deadline for the future read request based on the projected interarrival time for the future read request and the projected time in servicing the future read request, and issuing the read-ahead request based on the deadline, the read-ahead request to read additional data from the data storage device.