Patent ID: 7346709

Claim:
A method for managing a plurality of nodes in a network, comprising: initializing a cycle set and a final set to be empty sets; assigning to the cycle set a cycle having a size n or smaller, wherein n is a preferred maximum nodes per cycle; checking if the cycle set includes the plurality of nodes; if the cycle set does not include the plurality of nodes, increasing n by one and assigning to the cycle set a cycle that accesses at least one of the nodes not in the cycle set and has the increased size n, until the cycle set includes the plurality of nodes; moving from the cycle set to the final set a cycle that accesses a node that is accessed by only the cycle; checking if the final set includes the plurality of nodes; if the final set does not include the plurality of nodes, moving a remaining cycle from the cycle set to the final set, wherein the remaining cycle carries a largest intracycle traffic among cycles in the cycle set, until the final set includes the plurality of nodes; and designating cycles in the final set as cycles connecting the plurality of nodes in the network.