Time-utility function

File:Timeut12.gif Time/utility functions were introduced by E. Douglas Jensen in 1977 as a way to overcome the limited expressiveness in classic deadline constraints in real-time systems. Time/utility function time constraints (or TUFs) and utility accrual (UA) scheduling optimality criteria, constitute, arguably the most effective and broadest approach for adaptive, dynamic, time-critical resource management. A TUF, which is a generalization of the classical deadline constraint, specifies the utility of completing an application activity as an application or situation-specific function of that activity's completion time. With TUF time constraints, timeliness optimality criteria can be specified in terms of accrued (e.g., summed) activity utilities.