Patent ID: 7738504

Claim:
A method of establishing and updating a master node in a computer network comprising a plurality of nodes, comprising the steps of: a) scoring each node in the network according to its physical attributes; b) designating the node with the highest score as the master node; c) sending a message periodically by the master node declaring that it is the master node, where the message includes the master node's score, where the message requests each non-master node to send its node score to the master node, if it has not done so already, and where the period is user-definable; d) sending a message by a non-master node to the master node requesting that it relinquish master node status to the non-master node if the non-master node has a higher score than the master node; e) relinquishing master node status by the master node to a non-master node if the non-master node has a higher score than the master node and returning to step (c); and f) declaring by a non-master node that it is a master node if it has not received a message from the previously designated master node in a user-definable period of time and returning to step (c).