Patent ID: 7746791

Claim:
A method of monitoring an industrial communication network comprising interconnected end-devices and interconnecting network components, wherein between each pair of end-devices, exactly one communication path including at least one network component is defined, wherein the method comprises a) determining, for each communication path of a set comprising a limited number of distinct communication paths interconnecting two end-devices, if the communication path is operating or non-operating, b) considering each network component that is not included in at least one operating communication path of the set of communication paths as a non-operating network component, c) identifying a single network component among the interconnecting network components as a failed network component if the single network component is considered to be the only non-operating network component of the set, and d) enlarging the set of distinct communication paths by adding at least one further communication path to the set, each added communication path interconnecting a further pair of end-devices, and repeating steps a), b), and c), if more than one network component of the set is considered to be non-operating.