Patent ID: 7453808

Claim:
A method of throttling event messages to be forwarded from an element management system (EMS) to a network management system (NMS), the EMS including a Qs channel process for communicating with the NMS, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a set of at least one proxy buffer at the Qs channel process, the set having a fill level; receiving an event message associated with a network element; at a point separate from the Qs channel process, determining from at least the fill level whether the event message is to be forwarded; and if the event message is to be forwarded, forwarding the event message to the Qs channel process for storage in the at least one proxy buffer, wherein the event message has a priority which is either low or high, wherein the set of at least one proxy buffer has a state, the state being variable, being reflective of the fill level, and being at any point in time one of Low, High, or Full, and wherein determining whether the event message is to be forwarded comprises: if the state is Low, determining that the event message is to be forwarded; if the state is High and the event message has a high priority, determining that the event message is to be forwarded; if the state is High and the event message has a low priority, determining that the event message is not to be forwarded; and if the state is Full, determining that the event message is not to be forwarded.