Patent ID: 8380072

Claim:
A network, comprising: a plurality of nodes; an optical sensor network forming optical communications links between at least some of the nodes; a radio frequency (RF) wireless sensor network forming wireless communications links between at least some of the nodes and coupled to the optical sensor network, wherein the optical sensor network and the RF wireless sensor network communications are coordinated over both the optical and the wireless links with a quality-aware cross-link optimization protocol; a processor; and a memory including computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following steps to implement the quality-aware cross-link optimization protocol: calculating, for each path through the plurality of nodes, a path length Lw(i) based on a total number of links N(i) in the path and a number of pure wireless links Nw(i) in the path such that Lw(i)=N(i)+Nw(i); selecting all paths having the path length Lw(i) within a predetermined range as candidate paths; calculating, for each of the candidate paths, an optical path length Lo(i) based on a number of pure optical links No(i) and a number of hybrid optical and wireless links Now(i) along the candidate path such that Lo(i)=No(i)+Now(i); and selecting for transmissions, from among only the candidate paths, a path having a maximum value for the optical path length, the selected path having a total number of links greater than at least one other candidate path.