"closest distance Algorythm to root" to generate Nagios Parent/Chields from Nedi

Hello Community,

We generate Nagios Configs from Nedi with Parent/Chield relationships controlled by Nedi's "links" table
and the pathtrace algorythm used from nediDeviceConnections.pl. This works well but relies very strong to a well working nearest PathAlgorythm for the decission who is the parent and who is the chield. We do it based on hop count from the root device. Unfortionaly the pathtrace algorythm used from nediDeviceConnections.pl shows only any path at all, but not the shortest or the shortest just by coinsidence and has difficulties with big Etherchannels (last network had a 12 times interface channel).

So I will ask if somebody has a well working "nearest distance to root Algorythm" working with etherchannels
as well or can give me a hint where I should look deeper. I looked a bit arround and found something about this: cover_tree, K-Tree, B-Tree, Perl tree-simple

Steffen