Routing is managed by having a small number of zones, each divided into a small number of regions which themselves have a small number of repeater stations. Thus each station is identified by three numbers, one each for zone, region and station.
Northern zones.
Southern zones.
Here we plot the network connectivity assigning colors by region most of which repeat in each zone. enlarge
Idea: For all possible routes count the number of stations involved and the number of neighboring stations that will have to wait while the channel is occupied. Plot these as a scatter chart, hops vs neighbors.
There are about 30,000 possible routes.