an event - driven system that that provides scheduling and resource allocation for an internet serve . a cost - benefit model and user preferences are used to prioritize and schedule tasks . the present invention improves or optimizes a network server &# 39 ; s performance by prioritizing tasks according to their importance , cost , and the system owners desires . the tasks are scheduled and resources are allocated to the tasks in accordance with their priority . interlayer communication is used to provide a faster way to move data and to provide feedback as to the current state of a particular layer . header parsing and peeking provides a way to make decisions earlier rather than waiting for the necessary information to bubble up to a higher layer . a thin thread model is used to handle tasks . the progress of the thin threads relative to each other is monitored and controlled .