Patent ID: 8612524

Claim:
A system, comprising: a processor; a network interface coupled to the processor, wherein the network interface is to receive network status messages from a plurality of agents across a network, and wherein each network status message indicates a status of a portion of the network monitored by a respective agent; and storage accessible to the processor and the network interface, the storage comprising a plurality of queues, with each queue corresponding to an agent from the plurality of agents, and wherein network status messages from a given agent are stored by the storage in a queue in order of received network status messages corresponding to the agent pending processing by the processor, wherein, upon a number of network status messages in a queue for a particular agent exceeding an agent high water mark, the processor is to send a stop message through the network interface to such agent to cause such agent to cease sending network status messages, the processor is to further determine an aggregate number of network status messages in all of the queues to determine a global high water mark corresponding to the system, and wherein, in response to the aggregate number of network status messages in all of the queues exceeding the global high water mark, the processor is to send a stop message through the network interface to a number of selected agents from the plurality of agents that is less than a total number of the plurality of agents to cease sending network status messages, and wherein the selected agents are selected based on a number of pending network status messages for each of the selected agents irrespective of whether a selected agent has exceeded the agent high water mark for that selected agent.