A hierarchy of landmarks is established for the nodes in the network. Each node is assigned at least one hierarchy level designation and has a corresponding radius. An address is assigned to each of the nodes, the address including components representing landmarks wherein each landmark represented by the address component is within the radius of the landmark represented by the next lower address component. Each node maintains a routing table for routing entries to landmarks within the radii of which a node resides. A source node chooses a path toward the highest level landmark represented by the address components of a destination node until the path reaches a node within the radius of the landmark represented by the next lower level address component. This procedure is repeated for the remaining address components.
Patent Number: 4,823,111
Date Issued: April 18 1989