Patent ID: 7546247

Claim:
A computer implemented method of resource allocation to yield a benefit, the computer performing the steps of: associating each customer's demand with a benefit gained; finding a time-varying allocation of a plurality of resources that would yield a benefit which is based on the benefit gained associated with one or more customer's demands, time being divided into successive intervals where customer demand for an interval is not known until the beginning of the interval, each of said plurality of resources being allocated at the beginning of an interval to a demand of only one customer, and each of said plurality of resources being unavailable during an interval when reallocated to a demand of another customer; implementing the time-varying allocation of resources amongst one or more customers to yield said benefit; discounting future benefits, finding optimal allocations of resources from current time through current time plus lookahead based on discounted benefit and forecast demand, wherein the step of discounting future benefits is based on a future discounting algorithm, and wherein the steps of associating, finding, implementing and discounting are executed in a computer.