Patent ID: 7525978

Claim:
In a process for arbitrating a selection of one of a plurality of links using a priority list based on weight information associated with the plurality of links, a method for updating weight information associated with said plurality of links, the method comprising: adjusting over a first time period a weight information for a selected link to reflect an acceptance of a request for that link; adjusting over a second time period weight information for one to-be-penalized link so as to reflect a penalty being assessed to said to-be-penalized link, the to-be-penalized link having a highest weight from all the links in the plurality of links, wherein links different from the to-be-penalized link with higher weight than the selected link are not penalized; and adjusting over a third time period weight information for a second link from the plurality of links so as to reflect a weight increase associated with said second link, the second link having requested selection contemporaneously with the selected link; wherein said third time period is different from both said second and said first time periods.