Patent ID: 7587479

Claim:
A method in a computer system having a memory and a processor for determining a time over concurrency limit, the method comprising: providing usage records, each record having a start time and an end time; and repeating the following with a computer until all the records are selected, selecting the record with the next later start time, starting with the earliest start time; setting a concurrency number to the number of records that have been selected with an end time later than the start time of the currently selected record; and when the concurrency number is greater than a concurrency limit, choosing a previously selected record with the minimum end time that is later than the start time of the currently selected record and that has not already been chosen to increment the time over concurrency limit, and incrementing the time over concurrency limit by the difference between the start time of the currently selected record and the end time of the chosen record wherein when a record is selected, an indication of the end time of the selected record is placed in first and second logical containers, the concurrency number is set to the number of end times in the first logical container that are later than the start time of the currently selected record, the chosen record corresponds to the minimum end time in the second logical container that is later than the start time of the currently selected record, and after the time over concurrency limit is incremented, the indication of the end time corresponding to the chosen record is removed from the second logical container.