Patent ID: 8255736

Claim:
A distributed hash table (DHT) overlay network which has a plurality of DHT nodes that form a peer-to-peer (P2P) system, where each DHT node has a complete distributed DHT hash table which contains information identifying a specific range of hashes for each of the DHT nodes such that when anyone of the DHT nodes receives a query asking for a specific key the queried DHT node interacts with their respective DHT table to determine which one of the DHT nodes stores the specific key and if the queried DHT node does not store the specific key then the queried DHT node forwards the query in one network hop to the particular DHT node that is storing the specific key, said DHT overlay network comprising: said DHT nodes for implementing a bootstrapping mechanism where when each DHT node boots for a first time then that booting DHT node broadcasts a message announcing the booting DHT node's capacity; and if said DHT overlay network has no operating DHT nodes, then the booting DHT node is assigned first place in the DHT hash table and assumes all hash ranges in the DHT hash table; or if said DHT overlay network has only one operating DHT node, then the one operating DHT node, upon receiving the broadcast message, decides how to split the hash ranges according to the announced capacity of the booting DHT node and then sends a re-computed DHT hash table to the booting DHT node; or if said DHT overlay network has two or more operating DHT nodes, then the operating DHT node which is first in the DHT hash table, upon receiving the broadcast message, decides how to split the hash ranges according to the announced capacities of the booting DHT node and all of the operating DHT nodes and then sends a re-computed DHT hash table to the booting DHT node and the other operating DHT nodes.