Patent ID: 7916695

Claim:
A method comprising: scheduling input buffer contents and output buffer contents by delaying for a certain time period a forwarding of at least one trigger event to a policy resolution mechanism and at least one policy action to a policy action enforcement; in response to expiration of the certain time period, using at least stored causal relationships, examining the input and output buffer contents, including delayed contents, to determine causal relationships between trigger events in the input buffer, or between policy actions in the output buffer, or between policy actions in the output buffer and trigger events in the input buffer; and for the determined causal relationships, performing the following actions: determining priorities for the trigger events in the input buffer and priorities for the policy actions in the output buffer; sending higher priority trigger events to the policy resolution mechanism prior to sending lower priority trigger events and sending higher priority policy actions to the policy action enforcement prior to sending lower priority policy actions; and combining input buffer contents, including delayed contents, affecting a same target or quantity into at least one combined trigger event and output buffer contents, including delayed contents, respectively into at least one combined policy action, wherein the combining may include canceling one or more of the trigger events in the input buffer or one or more of the policy actions in the output buffer.