Patent ID: 8830921

Claim:
A system comprising: a processor; a memory readable by the processor; wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor enable the processor to perform functions comprising receiving communication condition information from each of a plurality of access points enabled to participate in a network, the plurality of access points comprising a first access point one wireless hop distant and two wireless hops distant respectively from a second access point and a third access point, and determining assignments of channels to each of the access points based at least in part on the communication condition information, the assignments of channels to a particular one of the access points taking into account conditions across the network as a whole, the taking into account including the communication condition information received from all the access points; and wherein the assignments of channels are based at least in part on, for each of the channels available for assignment, computing counts of respective subsets of the plurality of access points that are one and two wireless hops distant to each access point, averaging the counts over the plurality of access points, and weighting the averaged counts, as part of a strategy for optimizing overall communication performance of the network at a higher priority than optimizing communication performance of any one of the access points individually.