Patent ID: 8681662

Claim:
A method for operating a nodal network, the method comprising: storing, for each of a plurality of nodes that form a part of the nodal network, a corresponding nodal location and a corresponding node level selected from a plurality of node levels, the nodal location corresponding to a value between a lower limit value and an upper limit value, wherein each node level corresponds to a different range of nodal distances between nodes of the nodal network; storing, for a given node, (i) a first pointer to a first node having a nodal location that is next in sequence to the given node, and (ii) a second pointer to a second node having a nodal location that is at a distance from the given nodal location of the given node, the distance being within a range of nodal distances of the given node level of the given node; monitoring activity that passes through the given node for information corresponding to a nodal path used to handle different communication requests involving other nodes in the nodal network; and from monitoring the activity, updating, for the given node, the second pointer to point to another node.