Patent ID: 8701121

Claim:
A method of scheduling demands on a system having a plurality of resources which can be allocated to said demands, the method including the steps of, on receipt of a new demand for resources: a) determining the total resources required to complete said demand and a deadline for the completion of that demand; b) determining a plurality of alternative resource allocations which will allow completion of the demand before the deadline; c) for each of said alternative resource allocations, determining whether, based on allocations of resources to existing demands, said alternative resource allocation will result in a utilization of resources which is closer to an optimum utilization of said resources; and d) selecting, based on said determination in step c), one of said alternative resource allocations to complete said demand so as to optimize utilisation of resources of the system; and wherein the optimum utilisation of the resources of the system varies with time; and wherein said alternative resource allocations include starting said demand at a plurality of different start times between the time of receipt of the demand and the deadline, wherein said step c) of determining includes the sub-steps of: c1) determining, for each of a plurality of timeslots between the time of receipt of the new demand and the deadline, whether, based on allocations of resources to existing demands, said alternative resource allocation will result in a utilization of resources in said timeslot which is closer to an optimum utilization for said timeslot; and c2) collating the results of said determination in step c1) to generate a value indicating the desirability of each of said alternative resource allocations; and wherein said step d) of selecting selects based on said generated values; and wherein if a plurality of alternative resource allocations result in generation of said values which are equal, the step of selecting selects the alternative resource allocation which starts earliest in time.