DISTRIBUTED CLUSTERING OF WIRELESS NETWORK NODES

In one or more access points of a wireless communication network, a method for participating in a distributed clustering process directed at defining clusters of access points wherein each of the clusters comprises a cluster head and associated member nodes includes determining a marginal cost of associating an access point to each of distinct clusters of access points, based on a defined cost function, and associating the access point to one of the clusters of APs for which the marginal cost is minimized. The method may be performed by multiple access points in a peer-to-peer fashion and iterated until a stable cluster configuration is obtained. A cluster head may similarly be appointed in a distributed fashion by a current cluster head comparing total cost functions between different cluster configurations with different cluster heads.