Patent ID: 8560527

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving streaming data to be processed by a stream application comprising a plurality of processing elements, wherein each processing element includes one or more operators that are contained within a single process, each operator having executable code configured to connect to one or more other operators, and wherein the streaming data includes a plurality of tuples to be processed by different processing elements of the stream application, each tuple having one or more attributes; providing an operator graph of processing elements, the operator graph defining at least one execution path for processing the received streaming data, at least a first processing element of the operator graph configured to receive data from at least one upstream processing element and transmit data to at least one downstream processing element; identifying at least one tuple to be processed by at least one processing element of the stream application; determining a maximum duration for which the at least one processing element is allowed to process the at least one tuple; determining an estimated duration for which the at least one processing element is likely to process the at least one tuple; and managing processing of the at least one tuple, based on a comparison between the maximum duration and the estimated duration and by operation of one or more computer processors.