Patent ID: 9729444
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: receiving a particular data packet at a node of a plurality of nodes participating in a distributed hash table (DHT) that stores key-network flow information pairs, each node of the plurality of nodes locally storing network flow information as dictated by a hashing function of the DHT, the network flow information used to process data packets in the network; requesting, by the node, forwarding information with respect to the particular data packet from the DHT; using, by the hashing function, information in a header of a particular data packet to generate a key; based on the generated key, identifying, by the hashing function, a destination node of the plurality of nodes, the destination node storing necessary network flow information to process the particular data packet; receiving forwarding information from the DHT indicating the destination node to which the particular data packet should be forwarded according to the hashing function of the DHT; and forwarding, by the node, the particular data packet toward the destination node in order for the particular data packet to be processed using the network flow information stored at the destination node, wherein when a new node is added to the plurality of nodes that participate in the DHT, the new node is mapped to at least one key of a keyspace according to the hashing function of the DHT, such that a key mapping order of the other nodes of the plurality of nodes is preserved.