APPARATUS AND METHOD TO ALLOCATE LIMITED RESOURCES

• US 20100211680A1
• Filed: 02/13/2009
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaffer, Shmuel, Chatterton, Deon J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,474 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5021 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

A computerized method and apparatus to allocate a shared resource are described. The method may comprise accessing sensor data corresponding to an availability of the shared resource, and identifying when the availability of the shared resource reaches a threshold level below which the activities compete for the shared resource. Thereafter, when the activities compete for the shared resource, the method may allocate at least a portion of the shared resource to the activity associated with an active policy having a higher priority.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising:

executing at least two active policies using one or more processors, each active policy including an activity that consumes a shared resource;

accessing a database to obtain reference resource data corresponding to an availability of the shared resource;

identifying when the availability of the shared resource reaches a threshold level below which the activities compete for the shared resource; and

when the activities compete for the shared resource, allocating at least a portion of the shared resource to the activity associated with an active policy having a higher priority.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared resource is selected from the group consisting of electrical power and network bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a plurality of reference resource data values to simulate when the activities compete for the shared resource; and

providing a display screen to display policies including activities that compete for the shared resource at the plurality of reference resource data values.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing reference consumption data that identifies a completion level of the shared resource required to complete execution of the activity associated with the active policy having the higher priority; and

setting the threshold level to at least the completion level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a display output is provided to a display screen for identifying when the activities compete for the shared resource.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

simulating activities associated with the plurality of policies;

monitoring the consumption of resources during execution of the activities to obtain resource consumption data; and

storing the resource consumption data to identify the threshold level.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the activities serially when the shared resource reaches the threshold level so that an activity with a relatively higher priority is completed before executing an activity with a relatively lower priority.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity is a time-sensitive activity, the method comprising assigning the higher priority to the time-sensitive activity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least delaying execution of an activity associated with an active policy having a lower priority.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating with a plurality of devices associated with the at least two active policies to determine resources required by each device for operation; and

storing the resources required in the database to provide the reference resource data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying shared remaining resources available;

accessing reference resource data values associated with the plurality of policies;

identifying from the reference resource data when there are insufficient shared remaining resources to complete execution of a high priority activity;

when there are insufficient remaining resources, terminating the execution of the high priority activity; and

allocating at least a portion of the remaining resources previously allocated to the high priority activity to a lower priority activity.

12. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of;

executing at least two active policies, each active policy including an activity that consumes a shared resource;

accessing sensor data corresponding to an availability of the shared resource;

identifying when the availability of the shared resource reaches a threshold level below which the activities compete for the shared resource; and

when the activities compete for the shared resource, allocating at least a portion of the shared resource to the activity associated with an active policy having a higher priority.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the shared resource is selected from the group consisting of electrical power and network bandwidth.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising the operations of:

generating a plurality of reference resource data values to simulate when the activities compete for the shared resource; and

providing a display screen to display policies including activities that compete for the shared resource using the plurality of reference resource data values.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising the operations of:

accessing reference consumption data that identifies a completion level of the shared resource required to complete execution of the activity associated with the active policy having the higher priority; and

setting the threshold level to at least the completion level.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein a display output is provided to a display screen for identifying when the activities compete for the shared resource.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising the operations of:

executing activities associated with the plurality of policies;

monitoring the consumption of resources during execution of the activities to obtain resource consumption data; and

storing the resource consumption data to identify the threshold level.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising the operations of executing the activities serially when the shared resource reaches the threshold level so that an activity with a relatively higher priority is completed before executing an activity with a relatively lower priority.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein assigning the higher priority is assigned to a time-sensitive activity.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein execution of an activity associated with an active policy having a lower priority is terminated when the policies compete for the shared resource.

21. An apparatus comprising:

a policy engine for executing at least two active policies, each active policy including an activity that consumes a shared resource;

a data access module for accessing sensor data corresponding to an availability of the shared resource;

a resource monitor for identifying when the availability of the shared resource reaches a threshold level below which the activities compete for the shared resource; and

means for allocating at least a portion of the shared resource to the activity associated with an active policy having a higher priority when the activities compete for the shared resource.