Patent ID: 8782178

Claim:
A method comprising discovering, by a peer node in a peer-to-peer network, a border router operably connected to a packet communications network; selecting, by the peer node, a bootstrap anycast address from an allocated set of bootstrap anycast addresses, the allocated set of bootstrap anycast addresses including addresses used by other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network; advertising, by the peer node, network layer reachability information to the border router, wherein the network layer reachability information includes the selected bootstrap anycast address; receiving, by the peer node, a message from a host forwarded by the border router; and transmitting, by the peer node, a response to the message, wherein the response includes a network address of the peer node; querying, by the peer node, the border router for an autonomous system number of the border router; and following the reception of the autonomous system number from the border router, hashing, by the peer node, the autonomous system number, wherein selecting the bootstrap anycast address is based on one or more attributes of the hashed autonomous system number.