Patent ID: 8205023

Claim:
A method performed by a network device including a group of resources and a group of requestors of the resources, the method comprising: determining, by the network device and for each available resource of the group of resources, a priority rank position of each resource, among the available resources, based on which other resources are available and based on a priority of each available resource, where determining the priority rank position of each available resource includes: providing, by each available resource and to a resource availability register, an indication of availability, receiving, at each available resource, an indication of a number of each of the other available resources, and assigning, to each available resource and by each available resource, the priority rank position of each resource, based on the number of each of the other available resources; determining, by the network device and for each active requestor of the group of requestors, a priority rank position of each requestor, among the active requestors, based on which other requestors are active and based on a priority of each active requestor; assigning, by the network device, one or more pairs of the available resources and the active requestors based on the priority rank position of the active resources and the priority rank position of the active requestors; and assigning, by the network device, work to the available resources based on the one or more pairs.