Patent ID: 7929460

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: determining, using at least one data processor, a topology of a communication network by evaluating costs of states each representing a possible assignment of hubs and remote nodes to nodes of the communication network, the hubs connecting to a central network, the remote nodes connecting wirelessly to the hubs and obtaining connectivity to the central network through the hubs; and using an iterative process to evaluate the states, and at each iteration evaluate states each representing a network topology having more hubs than those represented by states evaluated at a previous iteration; wherein the cost of each state is determined based on costs for configuring each node as a hub or a remote node, uplink frequencies for sending data from the remote nodes to corresponding hubs, and downlink frequencies for sending data from the hubs to corresponding remote nodes, and wherein when the costs of each state evaluated at an iteration are higher than the lowest cost of states evaluated at a previous iteration, the assignment of hubs and remote nodes represented by the state having the lowest cost in the previous iteration is selected as the final topology for the communication network.