US Patent 7725896 Periodic event execution control mechanism

A scheduler schedules a plurality of periodic events. Each periodic event has an associated periodic interval of time and an associated set of services. The scheduler determines when one of the plurality of periodic events occurs and distributes the execution of the services associated with that periodic event during a next periodic interval of time associated with that periodic event following the occurrence of that periodic event. The services can be enabled and disabled. This allows the services to be executed, for example, in one-shot, burst, and continuous modes.