Content centric and load-balancing aware dynamic data aggregation

A method of determining a communication link for sending communication data from a first communications node to any one of a plurality of neighboring candidate nodes, comprising i) for each candidate node, determining a marginal processing gain comprising a measure of the communication data reduction available through aggregating the communication data at the candidate node; and ii) selecting one of the candidate nodes for forming the communication link, wherein the selection is based at least in part on the marginal processing gain determined for each candidate node.