Patent ID: 8108510

Claim:
A method of operating a computer system to characterize a network, said computer system comprising a central computer and a plurality of agents that make measurements of transactions that take place on said network, each agent operating independently of others of said agents, said method comprising: causing each agent to make a series of measurements over a measurement time period and to store a first subset of said measurements made during said time period, wherein the first subset consists of M measurements wherein M is greater than 1, wherein each measurement is related to said network, and wherein each measurement in the first subset is stored as a name-value pair, and wherein each agent compares each measurement made by that agent with a predetermined criterion to determine if that measurement is to replace one of said stored measurements; causing each agent to calculate a remainder value that is determined by said measurements made during said measurement time period that are not included in the first subset of measurements; and, causing each agent to transmit said first subset of measurements and said reminder value to said central computer.