Patent ID: 7627618

Claim:
A data collection system, comprising: a computer-readable storage medium; and a controller element that: assigns a priority level to each of a plurality of processes for collecting data in the data collection system; assigns a query interval for requesting use of available processing resources of the controller element to each of the plurality of processes according to their respective assigned priority level, wherein the assigned query interval comprises a frequency for requesting the available processing resources; prompts each of the plurality of processes according to their respective query interval to request use of at least a portion of available processing resources of the controller element; releases at least a portion of the available processing resources of the controller element to a requesting one of the plurality of processes when the utilization of available processing resources exceeds a first utilization threshold; and modifies the query interval of one or more of the plurality of processes after occurrence of a triggering event; wherein the controller element determines the modified query interval of a select one of the plurality of processes according to at least one of a sum of a default query interval, an additional delay time assigned to each one of one or more of the plurality of processes assigned a priority level exceeding a priority level assigned to the select one of the plurality of processes, and a system delay time determined from the available amount of processing resources of the controller element.