Patent ID: 8126980

Claim:
A method for detecting an undesirable condition within a wireless messaging network, the method comprising: (a) receiving a message, the message comprising a source address; (b) updating a computer-based data store to preserve (i) the source address, (ii) a source counter, and (iii) an array of timestamps, wherein (i) the source counter is set to a predetermined number on the first observance of the source address and incremented by a predetermined number on each subsequent observance of the source address and (ii) a timestamp entry corresponding to a time at which the message was received is added to the array of timestamps each time the source counter is changed; (c) iterating through the array of timestamps on a scheduled basis to remove timestamp entries from the array of timestamps that are older than a predetermined time and decrementing the source counter for each timestamp entry so removed; (d) comparing the source counter to a predetermined threshold; and (e) when the source counter exceeds the predetermined threshold triggering an alarm indicative of an undesirable condition.