Disclosed herein is a system comprising a plurality of agents that desire access to a resource; a finite amount of an internal state; a processor that is configured to enforce an arbitration mechanism to translate a quota specification for the plurality of agents according to a set of rules comprising i) all classes of service that are serviceable are served according to the quota specification; ii) if an underserviced class is not serviceable, a serviceable class continues to be granted access to the one or more resources even if the granted access leads to an increase in the underservice of a non-serviceable class; iii) as soon as the underserviced class becomes serviceable, it will in priority recuperate its accumulated disadvantage until its quota specification is reached; and iv) the internal state is updated upon reaching boundary conditions.