Patent ID: 7921422

Claim:
A method, implemented using a computing system, comprising: scheduling a resource among a plurality of elements, using a processor of said computing system, wherein said scheduling comprises in response to expiration of a period-of-use of said resource, updating a measure-of-use, wherein said resource is allocated to an active one of said plurality of elements for said period-of-use, said measure-of-use is a measure-of-use of said resource, said measure-of-use is updated for said resource, said updating is performed for said active one of said plurality of elements, said updating is based on said period-of-use and a measure-of-use adjustment, and said updating comprises updating a virtual time for said active one of said plurality of elements, assigning one of said plurality of elements to use said resource for a second period-of-use, wherein said assigning is based on said measure-of-use and an element-specific selection adjustment, said element-specific selection adjustment is one of a plurality of element-specific selection adjustments, and each of said plurality of element-specific selection adjustments corresponds to a corresponding element of said plurality of elements, and updating a system reference-use of said resource, wherein said updating causes said system reference-use to converge towards a virtual time average.