Patent ID: 8819694

Claim:
A method of load balancing jobs among multifunction peripheral (MFP) devices, the method comprising: receiving a job at a first MFP device; determining a job-type specific queue from a plurality of the job-type specific queue for routing the job based on a job type of the job, wherein each instance of the job-type specific queue is associated with a specific job type; determining a first MFP device capacity for processing the job in the job-type specific queue; querying by the first MFP device for a second MFP device capacity; determining at the first MFP device for the second MFP device capacity for processing the job; receiving by the first MFP device regarding information associated with the second MFP device capacity for processing the job; determining whether to transfer a portion of the job based on considering a number of waiting jobs for the job type meeting or exceeding a maximum number of the waiting jobs at the job-type specific queue and if the number of waiting jobs does not meet or exceed the maximum number of the waiting jobs at the job-type specific queue, determine if a total size of the waiting jobs at the job-type specific queue meeting or exceeding a maximum size for the waiting jobs at the job-type specific queue for load balancing between the first MFP device and a second MFP device; and balancing the job for the job type by transferring the portion of the job for processing the portion of the job at the second MFP device based on the number of the waiting jobs for the job type meeting or exceeding the maximum number of the waiting jobs for the job type at the job-type specific queue or based on the total size of the waiting jobs at the job-type specific queue meeting or exceeding the maximum size for the waiting jobs.