Patent ID: 8233480

Claim:
A system for creating a clustering data communications network, the clustering data communications network having a plurality of clusters each with network nodes, the plurality of clusters each having one representative network node and at least one other network node, comprising: a clustering subsystem that, for a node, is adapted to identify a cluster with which the network node is to be associated, that is adapted to assign a location identification that identifies at least a representative network node for the cluster of the network node, wherein the representative network node represents the cluster with which the network node is to be associated, wherein the representative network node of the cluster is interconnected using links with all other network nodes of the cluster, and wherein the representative network node is adapted to link to the other network nodes of the cluster; an advertising subsystem that is adapted to send advertising messages, each advertising message sent by an advertising network node to indicate that the network node exists in the clustering data communications network, and wherein the advertising message identifies at least the representative network node of the cluster of the advertising network node; and a routing layer that is adapted to determine whether each advertising message is to be forwarded to another network node by evaluating a rank of the network node that sent the advertising message.