Abstract
A method and apparatus for aggregating terminals into clusters that assists in the construction of a distributed data communication network. Terminal locations to be clustered are used as input along with a weight for each one representing the traffic carried by that location. The terminals are placed into boxes based on their geographic coordinates and only boxes with substantial traffic are retained. Any terminals included in a box not retained are assigned to the closest retained box. The retained boxes are merged into clusters so long as the maximum cluster traffic and maximum cluster radius are not exceeded. The center of mass of the resulting clusters are then determined. The representative locations of the resulting clusters are determined as the location of the terminal in the cluster closest to the center of mass.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Description
PTOInventor(s)
Michael O. Ball, Paul Nemirovsky, Roy DahlDate Issued
02/17/2016Patent No.
5,652,841Top