Patent ID: 8077618

Claim:
A method for scheduling items, comprising: identifying, by a particular apparatus configured for scheduling items, a best schedule item associated with an eligible schedule entry of a plurality of schedule entries in a schedule, wherein whether or not a particular schedule entry of said schedule entries is eligible is determined based on the relationship of its associated timestamp with a current scheduling time, said relationship including its said associated timestamp being within a burst tolerance time bound after the current scheduling time, wherein the burst tolerance time bound is a nonzero value associated with a priority level of an item currently associated with said particular schedule entry; wherein said associating the best schedule item with the schedule entry includes: identifying that the schedule entry was dormant prior to said associating, and in response, initializing one or more timestamps associated with the schedule entry; and wherein said initializing one or more timestamps includes setting a timestamp of said one or more timestamps prior to its associated current time by its nonzero wakeup burst tolerance value.