Patent ID: 8819688

Claim:
Method of scheduling periodic processes for execution in an electronic system, including in a network, in a data processor, or in a communication device, wherein said electronic system includes a controller for performing said scheduling, wherein a number of N processes P i are already scheduled with each process P i having an individual service interval SI i , and wherein an additional process P N+1 is to be scheduled with a service interval SI N+1 , said method comprising the steps of scheduling, at each of plural scheduling stages, said additional process P N+1 to maximize a minimum time lag between the execution times of said additional process P N+1 being currently scheduled and the execution times of said number of N already scheduled processes P i by assigning an appropriate initial execution time t ie to said additional process P N+1 being currently scheduled, wherein said controller calculates the minimum time lag between the execution times of said additional process P N+1 to be currently scheduled and the execution times of each of said number of N already scheduled processes P i , and expresses each calculated minimum time lag as a function of said initial execution time t ie to be assigned to said additional process P N+1 , and wherein a minimum of all individual minimum time lags between said additional process P N+1 to be currently scheduled and each of said number of N already scheduled processes P i defines an absolute minimum time lag which is maximized by computing a period T of a function that represents the absolute minimum time lag as a function of the initial execution time t ie of the additional process P N+1 to be currently scheduled, and wherein said initial execution time t ie of said additional process P N+1 to be scheduled is determined by way of breaking an N-flows problem into a number of N different 2-flow problems.