Patent ID: 8155146

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for processing data packets in an electronic environment, comprising: under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, receiving a user data packet including a payload portion and header information specifying a virtual address; contacting a mapping service to determine a physical address corresponding to the virtual address; executing a hashing algorithm against the virtual address information and any additional overlay network related data to generate a series of hashes; determining a plurality of segmentation boundaries for the payload portion; placing each of the series of hashes adjacent one of the segmentation boundaries in the payload; generating a transmission frame including an address header, the address header comprising the determined physical address, and the payload portion, the payload portion including the series of hashes; and transmitting the transmission frame to the physical address, wherein the transmission frame is capable of being segmented into a plurality of transmission segments at the determined segmentation boundaries using commodity hardware, and wherein the hashed virtual address and other overlay network metadata is capable of being distributed across smaller packets generated by segmentation.