Patent ID: 7730494

Claim:
A method for correlating events in a communication network, comprising: receiving a new event; matching said new event to an event class of at least one correlation rule; determining whether said new event correlates to an open instance of said at least one correlation rule; correlating automatically via a processor said new event to a previous event if said new event correlates to an open instance of said at least one correlation rule; assigning a new trigger event if said new event fails to correlate to an open instance of said at least one correlation rule; generating at least one event condition for said new event, wherein said at least one event condition comprises at least one triplicate, where each of said at least one triplicate comprises an event class field, an asset field and a time constraint field, wherein said determining comprises: comparing said at least one triplicate of said new event with at least one existing triplicate of said open instance of said at least one correlation rule; and updating said at least one existing triplicate with said at least one triplicate of said new event; or adding said at least one triplicate of said new event to said at least one existing triplicate.