Patent ID: 7797407

Claim:
A system of a plurality of interconnectable nodes for modeling a plurality of states representing a process, the system comprising; one predetermined node configured to act as a master node, the master node being configured to instantiate a state and distributing the instantiated state to at least one of the nodes, the master node being further configured to modify a state by changing the state and distributing the changed state to at least one of the nodes, the master node being further configured to maintain an indication of “owner of process” assigned to exactly one of the interconnectable nodes at a time; wherein a first node not being the master node but being indicated as “owner of process”, is configured to cause the master node to instantiate a state or to modify a state; the first node further configured upon receiving a request for instantiating or modifying a state from a second node to decide whether or not to accept the request of the second node and to cause the master node to instantiate a state and to modify a state, respectively, whether or not the first node is connected at the time the second node is sending the request to perform a state change; and wherein the master node is configured to act as dispatcher for a request for instantiating or modifying a state received from a node which is not indicated as “owner of process” by passing the request to the node which is indicated as “owner of process”.