Patent ID: 8155026

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving network information associated with one or more network links, one or more network nodes, and a network hub; identifying at least two network paths from at least one of the one or more network nodes to the network hub based on the network information; determining a number of hops for each identified network path; determining a latency of each link for each identified network path; determining that at least one link is between nodes at a same location, and setting the latency value for the at least one link to a minimum latency value based on the determination; summing the latencies of each link for each identified network path to calculate a total network path latency; determining a ranking of the network paths based at least in part on the number of hops and the total network path latency; calculating the distance of each network path utilizing a grid system of vertical and horizontal coordinates to identify locations of the one or more network nodes to determine a grid distance; and multiplying the grid distance by a specified multiplier to determine a network path distance.