Patent ID: 8082550

Claim:
A method in a data communication device for selecting a resource from a plurality of resources to process a request from a client, comprising the steps of: generating a first cost increase for a first resource of the plurality of resources if the first resource responds to the request and a second cost increase for a second resource of the plurality of resources if the second resource responds to the request; comparing the first cost increase and the second cost increase to determine one of the first and second cost increases that has a lower cost increment; and selecting one of the first resource and the second resource to respond to the request from the client based on the lower cost increment, wherein generating the first and second cost increases includes generating an estimated request usage and an estimated available usage for each resource, the estimated request usage for a resource reflecting an estimate of the projected usage of the resource over a current time based on the request for data, and the estimated available usage for a resource being based on a usage metric for the resource and the estimated request usage for the resource, the estimated available usage being generated by: identifying a subset of the plurality of resources for which the estimated request usage is higher than a predetermined usage limit defined relative to a peak usage metric for each resource, the peak usage metric for a resource representing a measurement of the highest level of usage attained for the resource over a current billing period based on the usage information; and assigning a predetermined marginal cost to an incremental usage of each resource in the subset.