Methods and apparatus for implementing a flexible multi-user advance reservation system where reservation requests are specified in terms of multiple options and where each option has an associated business value

Abstract

The present invention concerns methods and apparatus for implementing a multi-user advance reservation system where reservations are specified in terms of flexible constraints, inflexible constraints and business values. The specification of reservations in this manner allows an entity managing the reservation system to arbitrate among reservations received from a user population with a view toward maximizing business value across the user population. In methods and apparatus of the present invention, penalties and rewards associated with various reservation outcomes can be specified in reservations to assist in business value maximization. In an example, a reservation having a low business value may be declined when there is a significant possibility that a reservation having a high business would be submitted during the pendency of service delivery to the user issuing the reservation with a low business value.

1 . A signal-bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus of a computer system to perform operations for managing an advance resource reservation system, the operations comprising: 
 at the advance resource reservation system, receiving advance reservation requests for a resource submitted by a plurality of potential resource users, wherein each advance reservation request specifies at least one reservation fulfillment requirement that comprises multiple options indicating various ways in which a resource provider may meet the needs of a particular potential resource user issuing the advance reservation request, and wherein a business value is assigned to each of the multiple options; and    analyzing each advance reservation request to determine if a reservation can be granted for at least one of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options.    
     
     
         2 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the business value assigned to each of the multiple reservation fulfillment options is selected by a potential resource user prior to a time when an advance reservation request containing the multiple reservation fulfillment options is submitted to the advance resource reservation system.  
     
     
         3 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the business value assigned to each of the multiple reservation fulfillment options is selected by the resource provider after an advance reservation request containing the multiple reservation fulfillment options is received by the advance resource reservation system.  
     
     
         4 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: 
 determining for a particular advance reservation request that a reservation will not be granted for any of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options; and    informing a particular potential resource user that issued the particular advance reservation request that none of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options will result in a reservation.    
     
     
         5 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 determining for a particular advance reservation request that a reservation will be granted for at least one of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options; and    informing a particular potential resource user that issued the particular advance reservation request that a reservation will be granted for at least one of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options.    
     
     
         6 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein an advance reservation request received from a particular potential resource user specifies a time by which the particular potential resource user requires an indication whether the particular potential resource user will receive a resource reservation.  
     
     
         7 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 6  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 issuing a reservation to the particular potential resource user at or before the time specified by the particular potential resource user.    
     
     
         8 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein analyzing each advance reservation request to determine if a reservation can be granted further comprises: 
 at a predetermined time, pre-allocating the resource among the plurality of potential resource users submitting advance reservation requests on the basis of a pre-determined business value allocation criterion applied to business values associated with particular reservation fulfillment requirement options, thereby resulting in a resource pre-allocation;    identifying at least one advance reservation request containing at least one reservation fulfillment requirement option accommodated in the resource pre-allocation; and    informing a resource user who submitted the at least one advance reservation request that a reservation will be granted for the at least one reservation fulfillment requirement option accommodated by the resource pre-allocation.    
     
     
         9 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 8  wherein the pre-determined time is determined in dependence on a time specified in the advance reservation request submitted to the advance resource reservation system by the potential resource user who will receive a resource reservation under the resource pre-allocation, wherein the time specified in the advance reservation request corresponds to a time by which the potential resource user requires an indication whether a reservation will be granted for any of the reservation fulfillment requirement options specified in the advance reservation request.  
     
     
         10 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 8  wherein advance reservation requests submitted to the advance resource reservation system specify desired resource delivery times, and wherein the pre-determined time when resource pre-allocation occurs is determined in dependence on desired resource delivery times specified in the advance reservation requests.  
     
     
         11 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 10  wherein the pre-determined time when resource pre-allocation occurs is determined from the desired resource delivery times specified in the advance reservation requests using a just-in-time criterion.  
     
     
         12 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 8  wherein the pre-determined business value allocation criterion corresponds to a criterion which maximizes collective business values across a population of potential resource users in the resource pre-allocation.  
     
     
         13 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 8  wherein informing the particular potential resource user further comprises: 
 issuing a reservation to the particular potential resource user.    
     
     
         14 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 13  wherein the reservation corresponds to at least one reservation requirement fulfillment option specified by the particular potential resource user.  
     
     
         15 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 13  wherein the reservation specifies a time when the resource will be provided to the particular potential resource user.  
     
     
         16 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 15  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 continuing to receive advance reservation requests after the resource pre-allocation;    at or prior to the time when the resource will be provided to the particular potential resource user holding the reservation, examining business values associated with reservation fulfillment requirement options specified in advance reservation requests received after the resource pre-allocation;    determining whether any of the advance reservation requests received after the resource pre-allocation specify a reservation fulfillment requirement option having a higher business value than the business value associated with the reservation held by the particular potential resource user; and    if so, re-allocating the resource in accordance with the higher business value specified in the advance reservation request received after the resource pre-allocation, wherein re-allocating the resource results in a resource re-allocation.    
     
     
         17 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 16  wherein as a result of the resource re-allocation the particular potential resource user holding the reservation is no longer accommodated, wherein the operations further comprise: 
 canceling the reservation held by the particular potential resource user; and    informing the particular potential resource user of the reservation cancellation.    
     
     
         18 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 16 , wherein the reservation held by the potential resource user comprises at least two reservation components, wherein each of the at least two reservation components resulted from different reservation fulfillment requirement options, and wherein each of the at least two reservation components is associated with a business value assigned to the reservation fulfillment requirement option from which it resulted, wherein the operations further comprise: 
 preserving as valid at least one of the at least two reservation components due to the at least one reservation component having a sufficiently high business value to continue to be allocated at least a portion of the resource under the resource re-allocation;    canceling at least one of the at least two reservation components due to the at least one reservation component having an insufficiently high business value so that it is not allocated any of the resource under the resource re-allocation; and    informing the particular potential resource user of the cancellation of at least one of the at least two reservation components.    
     
     
         19 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 8 , whereby at least one of the reservation fulfillment requirement options specified in a particular advance reservation request corresponds to a mandatory reservation fulfillment requirement, and wherein the operations further comprise: 
 prior to pre-allocating the resource among the plurality of potential resource users, identifying the advance reservation request specifying the mandatory reservation fulfillment requirement and the potential resource user who submitted the mandatory reservation fulfillment requirement; and    during pre-allocation, pre-allocating a portion of the resource to the potential resource user who submitted the advance reservation request specifying the mandatory reservation fulfillment requirement, wherein the portion allocated corresponds to an amount specified in the mandatory reservation fulfillment requirement.    
     
     
         20 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 17  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 presenting the potential resource user whose reservation was canceled with an opportunity to submit a new advance reservation request; and    during the opportunity to submit a new advance reservation request, providing the potential resource user whose reservation was canceled with at least one suggested business value which, if adopted by the potential resource user in a new advance reservation request, would result in the issuance of a new reservation.    
     
     
         21 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 20  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 receiving from the potential resource user whose reservation was canceled a new advance reservation request, wherein the new advance reservation request specifies at least one reservation fulfillment requirement option having a new business value that is at least as great as the suggested business value;    analyzing the new advance reservation request to identify the new business value; and    re-allocating the resource among the plurality of potential resource users on the basis of business values specified by each of the plurality of potential resource users with respect to particular reservation fulfillment options, including the new business value specified by the particular potential resource user whose reservation was canceled, wherein the re-allocation results in a new resource re-allocation.    
     
     
         22 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 21  whereby the particular potential resource user whose reservation was canceled is accommodated by the new resource allocation, and wherein the operations further comprise: 
 issuing a new reservation to the particular potential resource user whose reservation was canceled.    
     
     
         23 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 4  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 presenting the particular potential resource user who submitted an advance reservation request containing multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options, wherein it was determined that none of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options would result in a reservation, with an opportunity to submit a new advance reservation request; and    during the opportunity to submit a new advance reservation request, providing the potential resource user with at least one suggested business value which, if adopted by the potential resource user in a new advance reservation request, would result in the issuance of reservation.    
     
     
         24 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 15  wherein the operations further comprise: 
 providing the resource to the particular potential resource user at the time specified in the reservation.    
     
     
         25 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 24  whereby the operations are repeated over multiple resource pre-allocation cycles wherein after which each pre-allocation cycle the resource is provided to those potential resource users holding reservations during resource provision cycles, the operations further comprising: 
 identifying potential resource users who over a course of a plurality of resource pre-allocation and resource provision cycles have been provided less than a pre-determined minimum amount of the resource;    during at least one following resource pre-allocation and resource provision cycle, setting aside a portion of the resource available for pre-allocation to those potential resource users who over a course of a plurality of resource allocation and resource provision cycles have been provided less than a pre-determined minimum amount of the resource; and    pre-allocating the portion of the resource available to those potential resource users who have been provided less than a predetermined minimum amount of the resource on the basis of business values specified by each of the plurality of potential resource users in their advance reservation requests with respect to particular reservation fulfillment requirement options, wherein the pre-allocation results in a starvation avoidance resource pre-allocation; and    issuing binding resource reservations to those potential resource users accommodated under the starvation avoidance resource pre-allocation.    
     
     
         26 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein at least one of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options specified in a particular advance reservation request concerns an amount of resource required by the potential resource user issuing the particular advance reservation request.  
     
     
         27 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the at least one of the multiple reservation fulfillment requirement options specified in a particular advance reservation request concerns a time when the resource is required by the potential resource user issuing the particular advance reservation request.  
     
     
         28 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 17  wherein cancellation of the reservation triggers a penalty provision imposed on a resource provider providing the resource.