After a departing node is identified, its zone must be either merged or taken over. First the departed node's zone is analyzed to determine whether a neighboring node's zone can merge with the departed node's zone to form a valid zone. For example, a zone in a 2d coordinate space must be either a square or rectangle and cannot be L-shaped. The validation test may cycle through all neighboring zones to determine if a successful merge can occur. If one of the potential merges is deemed a valid merge, the zones are then merged. If none of the potential merges are deemed valid, then the neighboring node with the smallest zone takes over control of the departing node's zone. After a take-over, the take-over node may periodically attempt to merge its additionally controlled zones with respective neighboring zones.