Patent ID: 7340312

Claim:
A method for monitoring and control of a system comprising the steps of: receiving in a network processor a plurality of encapsulated statuses in a plurality of packets for a plurality of attributes from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors for monitoring the plurality of attributes of the system, wherein each of the plurality of packets includes an information field, the information field includes a plurality of subfields, wherein the plurality of subfields includes the statuses of the plurality of sensors, wherein an embedded command within each packet indicates the subfield that the network processor is to use in building a key; determining at least one entry of a plurality of entries in a table to access based upon the plurality of statuses and using the network processor, each of the plurality of entries indicating at least one action to be taken in response to a portion of the plurality of attributes of the system having particular values; and accessing the at least one entry using the network processor to determine the at least one action.