Patent ID: 8249625

Claim:
In a position-determining system comprising a plurality of position-determining nodes, wherein each of a plurality of position-determining requests received by the system specifies a processing-duration that defines a maximum amount of time that the system should spend determining position and thereby defines a corresponding granularity of position-determination by the system, wherein all processing-durations in a range, although different from each other, define the same corresponding granularity of position-determination by the system, a method comprising: receiving into the position-determining system a first position-determining request specifying a first processing-duration, wherein the first processing-duration is within a given range and defines a given corresponding granularity; receiving into the position-determining system a second position-determining request specifying a second processing-duration, wherein the second processing-duration is different than the first processing-duration, wherein the second processing-duration is within the given range and defines the same given corresponding granularity; based on which processing-duration of the given range the first processing-duration is, the system selecting a first position-determining node of the plurality to process the first position-determining request; based on which processing-duration of the given range the second processing-duration is, the system selecting a second position-determining node of the plurality to process the second position-determining request, wherein the second position-determining node is different than the first position-determining node at least in part because the second processing-duration is different than the first processing-duration; routing the first position-determining request to the first position-determining node for processing; and routing the second position-determining request to the second position-determining node for processing.