Patent ID: 8149688

Claim:
A method for locating a malfunction in a set of elements in a communication network, each of said elements having associated therewith a respective processing entity, comprising: detecting said malfunction in at least one of said elements; informing others of said elements of a presence of said malfunction; generating, in each of said elements, a respective set of alarms related to said malfunction, categorizing, in each of said processing entities, the set of alarms generated by the respective element, said set of alarms being categorized in a first category of alarms if the element has detected said malfunction and in a second category of alarms if the element has been informed of the presence of said malfunction; and electing one of said elements as element responsible for the malfunction based on the result of said step of categorizing, wherein the electing excludes from the election elements associated with the second category, wherein categorizing said at least an alarm in the first category comprises categorizing said at least an alarm in a first sub-category if the malfunction is related to a resource of the element that has communicated its malfunction status to the element, and in a second sub-category if the malfunction is related to a resource of the element that has not communicated its malfunction status to the element or if the malfunction is unrelated to a resource of the element but has been detected by a resource of the element.