Patent ID: 7752332

Claim:
A method of routing in a wireless network of communication devices within a network boundary from a first communication device that defines a first network node to a second communication device that defines a second network node, the method performed by at least one of the first communication device or the second communication device comprising: (A) constructing a geometric indicator of network connectivity for the wireless network such that the geometric indicator of network connectivity identifies a curve on which network nodes are located; (B) determining a network location for each node of the wireless network, wherein the network location of a node p identifies a node on the geometric indicator curve that is closest to the node p, identifies a node on the network boundary that is closest to the node p, and indicates connectivity from the node p to the closest node of the geometric indicator curve; (C) determining a routing scheme from the first communication device to the second communication device based on the respective determined network locations for the first and second communication devices; wherein constructing the geometric indicator of network connectivity comprises constructing a medial axis representation of the network nodes that includes the set of nodes with at least two closest nodes on the network boundary, and wherein determining the network location for each node of the wireless network comprises: defining a network name for each node of the wireless network, wherein the network name of a node p is given by (x(p), d(p)) wherein x(p) refers to a node on the medial axis closest to the node p and d(p) comprises connectivity hop count data for the distance from the node p to the node at x(p).