Patent ID: 8041870

Claim:
An arbiter in a communication system, the arbiter comprising: a plurality of request shapers respectively in communication with a plurality of requestors, wherein each request shaper is configured to receive, from a respective requestor, a request for access to a resource of the communication system, initially assign a priority level to the request upon receipt of the request, increase an age of the request, after increasing the age of the request, compare the age of the request to a delta period value associated with the respective requestor, wherein each of the plurality of requestors has a corresponding delta period value that is different from that of other ones of the plurality of requestors, repeatedly increase the priority level of the request based on the comparison, and reset the age of the request each time the age of the request reaches the delta period value associated with the respective requestor; and an arbiter core configured to grant one of the plurality of requestors access to the resource based on i) the priority level of each request and i) the age of each request.