Patent ID: 8249083

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for processing a message using a message processing node, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a message at the message processing node; extracting at least one parameter value from the message; attempting to select a node instance from a library of pre-configured node instances indexed via a hash table by using the at least one parameter value; and processing the message at the message processing node using the selected node instance, wherein the step of attempting to select a node instance comprises: attempting to locate a pre-configured node instance that matches the at least one parameter value extracted from the message received by performing a hash function on any extracted parameter values and using the result of the hash function to access the hash table; and responsive to being unable to locate such a pre-configured node instance, configuring a new node instance using any parameter values extracted from the message; and wherein the location of a node instance selected for a previous message is remembered and the step of attempting to select a node instance comprises: determining whether the node instance selected for the previous message is appropriate for processing the current message; and responsive to a positive determination, accessing the previously selected node instance using the remembered location.