Patent ID: 8495201

Claim:
A method for assigning network nodes to community of interest clusters, the method comprising: selecting, with a processor, two seed points in a network, each seed point representing a cluster, wherein the two seed points are selected so that a distance between the two seed points is as far apart as possible, via a network path selected from a plurality of network paths; adding, with the processor, a node to a particular cluster based on a distance between the node and one of the two seed points representing the particular cluster; computing, with the processor, a clustering metric representative of an affinity that each of a plurality of nodes adjacent to the particular cluster has for the particular cluster, the clustering metric based on a distance between the plurality of nodes and the one of the two seed points; and adding, with the processor, one of the plurality of nodes to the particular cluster when the clustering metric for the one of the plurality of nodes exceeds a predetermined value.