Systems and methods for wireless network routing using radio frequency distance-based virtual node locations

Disclosed is a method of providing a virtual location of a node in a network. Distance information is received for a first node (A) of a network (10). The distance information describes a quality of communication between the first node (A) and each of one or more neighboring nodes (B, C, D) in the network (10). A virtual location of the first node (A) is determined using the distance information. A distance of the virtual location of the first node (A) from a geographic location or a virtual location of a second node (B, C, D) corresponds to a quality of communication between the first node (A) and second node (B, C, D). The virtual location of the first node (A) is provided for use in routing messages in the network. Wherein if the virtual location of the node is not available the routing algorithm may use the actual location of the node(s). The virtual locations can be mapped in a similar manner to the geographical location resulting in a topography of the network (20).