Patent ID: 8819103

Claim:
A method for communicating between a first element and an identified second element in a distributed system including a plurality of additional elements, the method comprising: determining, by the first element, contemporaneously with a processing time of a task, at least one goal related to the task to be performed by the identified second element; determining, by the first element, at least one constraint related to how the at least one goal is to be achieved; wherein the at least one goal and the at least one constraint are determined by the first element to direct the second element to behave cooperatively with at least one of the plurality of additional elements; communicating, by the first element, the at least one goal and the at least one constraint to the identified second element, wherein communicating the at least one goal and the at least one constraint comprises: assembling a message including a command type, a command identifier, a command specification and a command time; and transmitting the assembled message from the first element to the second element; and receiving, at the first element, an error message from the identified second element, in response to the communicated goal and constraint, if the identified second element is not capable of achieving the at least one goal in accord with the at least one constraint and if the identified second element is capable of achieving the at least one goal in accord with the at least one constraint, receiving no feedback message from the identified second element regarding the at least one goal and at least one constraint, thereby conserving communication bandwidth.