A method for establishing simultaneous communications between nodes having neighboring nodes in a multi-hop network of transceiver nodes arranged in neighborhoods includes determining the quality of communication links between the nodes of a neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods. A table of quality data is stored representing the quality of communication links between nodes of the neighborhood for each node. A set of performance criterion of desired service in the neighborhood is stored. A set of possible link assignments between ones of the nodes in the neighborhood is generated from the table of quality data based upon a maximized performance criterion of desired service in the neighborhood. Link assignments are then allocated between nodes of the neighborhood based upon the desired performance criterion.