Patent ID: 7801963

Claim:
A method for monitoring distributed software which is executed on a number of computer units associated with at least one control unit, the method comprising: assigning one of the computer units a master module; assigning to each of a plurality of others of the computer units a respective slave module; and conducting communication in master-slave operation between the master module and the slave modules for monitoring, wherein: the communication is conducted such that, in response to a query of the master module to all slave modules, each of the slave modules returns an appropriate response, and the responses are analyzed by the master module to check for faultless operation of the slave modules; the master module sends the query to the all slave modules in a first single communication via a first slave module coupled to the master module; the master module receives all responses of the all slave modules in a second single communication from a second slave module coupled to the master module; the plurality of others of the computer units are serially connected such that the appropriate response of one of the slave modules assigned to one of the computer units includes a query to, and is forwarded to, a slave module assigned to a next one of the plurality of others of the computer units; and the master module sends the query of the master module to a first slave module of the serially connected slave modules and receives the responses from a last slave module of the serially connected slave modules.