NETWORKS WITH REDUNDANT POINTS OF PRESENCE USING APPROXIMATION METHODS AND SYSTEMS

Methods, systems, and products determine minimum cost networks. A k-fold coverage formulation is applied to potential network elements having cost and coverage parameters. Iterative heuristics are used to find an optimal solution to the k-set coverage formulation. The approximate solutions to the k-set coverage formulation are then used to select at least some of the potential network elements for use in a minimum cost network.