Patent Document ID: 10110439
Application ID: 15117101
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of identifying critical nodes in a wireless network from a network topology graph for the wireless network, the wireless network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links between the nodes, and the network topology graph for the wireless network indicating the plurality of links between the nodes, the method comprising: providing processor-executable instructions on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to: select each node in turn as a candidate node, and for each candidate node: generate a network topology graph for a sub-network comprising all of the nodes of the wireless network except the candidate node; determine from the network topology graph for the sub-network if the sub-network is fully reachable; generate an indication that the candidate node is a critical node if the sub-network is not fully reachable; and determine a criticality measure for the candidate node if the candidate node is indicated as a critical node, wherein determining the criticality measure for the candidate node comprises determining, for each node of the sub-network, a number of other nodes of the sub-network that cannot be reached from the each node of the sub-network; rank each of the plurality of nodes in the wireless network according to the criticality measures; and allocate a network resource according to the rank, wherein determining from the network topology graph for the sub-network if the sub-network is fully reachable comprises applying a shortest path finding algorithm to the sub-network, and wherein allocating the network resource comprises at least one of: adding a new node to a region of the wireless network; boosting power to a one of the plurality of nodes; and replacing a one of the plurality of nodes.