Patent ID: 7961610

Claim:
A method of identifying an instance of use to eliminate from among a plurality of instances of use in a coverage area of a wireless communication system, the method comprising: detecting, by an overload control mechanism, a threshold load in the coverage area; for each instance of use, determining a respective ratio of a value of instance of use to a quantity of resource consumed by the instance of use; sorting, by the overload control mechanism, the instances of use in order of their determined ratios, to produce a sorted order of the instances of use, sorting from a highest determined ratio to a lowest determined ratio; in sorted order, beginning at the instance of use having the highest determined ratio, selecting as many instances of use as possible, such that the total amount of resources consumed by the selected instances of use is as high as possible without exceeding the threshold load; identifying as instances of use to eliminate from the coverage area all of the instances of use in the sorted order other than the selected instances of use.