Patent ID: 8732717

Claim:
A resource allocation method, comprising: determining, using a processor, at least one candidate allocation time period according to a resource benefit time step function, wherein a benefit of a resource does not vary with time in said at least one candidate allocation time period; converting, with said processor and a resource cost time step function, said resources into sub-resources; converting said sub-resources into sub-resource groups by correspondingly applying any pre-determined relations between said resources to said sub-resources wherein said sub-resource groups comprise sub-resources representative of all possible values of resource costs and any exclusive relations between said resources, and wherein the resource costs of the sub-resources depend on request moments corresponding to the sub-resources and the resource cost time step function, and wherein converting said sub-resources into sub-resource groups further comprises removing sub-resources whose request moments are posterior to any candidate allocation moments; and with respect to said at least one candidate allocation time period, inputting said sub-resource groups into a resource schedule optimizer to obtain optimized results with respect to said sub-resource groups and said at least one candidate allocation time period.