US Patent 7929460 Communication network topology determination

A communication network topology is determined by evaluating costs of states each representing a possible assignment of hubs and remote nodes to nodes of the communication network. The hubs connect to a central network, the remote nodes connect wirelessly to the hubs and obtain connectivity to the central network through the hubs. The cost of each state is determined based on costs for configuring each node as a hub or a remote node, uplink frequencies for sending data from the remote nodes to corresponding hubs, and downlink frequencies for sending data from the hubs to corresponding remote nodes.