Patent Document ID: 8972566
Application ID: 13301250
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of communicating statuses of machines in a network, comprising: at a first machine of a plurality of machines in the network: receiving a status message from a second machine of the plurality of machines, the status message comprising summary information regarding occurrences of a first state among a subset of the machines in the network, the summary information having been generated or revised by the second machine based on a respective local state of the second machine; revising the summary information based on a respective local state of the first machine; and in accordance with predefined criteria, performing one of multiple alternative actions, the multiple alternative actions comprising: (1) propagating a revised status message to an additional machine in the network for further revisions of the summary information, and (2) reporting to a server regarding occurrences of the first state among a first set of machines in the network comprising the first machine and the subset of machines.