Using burst tolerance values in time-based schedules

Schedules may use burst tolerance values to adjust the scheduling in a time-based schedule, such as, but not limited to, adjusting for accumulated but not used bandwidth, and/or adjusting eligibility of schedule entries. A best schedule item associated with an eligible schedule entry of a schedule is identified. Whether or not a particular schedule entry is eligible is typically determined based on the relationship of an associated timestamp with a current scheduling time, such as its timestamp being less than or equal to the current time. A burst tolerance time bound might also be used to allow certain priorities and/or types of items to be considered eligible if even its timestamp exceeds the current time by an amount, but less than or equal to the burst tolerance time bound. When a schedule entry which has been dormant becomes active, its one or more timestamps are typically initialized, which may include setting at least one of these timestamps behind current time by a wakeup burst tolerance value to guarantee its immediate eligibility for one or more consecutive scheduling iterations.