Patent ID: 8584228

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for cryptographic key distribution in a physical network having a plurality of physical nodes, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more computing systems configured to provide a mapping service, information mapping a virtual network address of a virtual node to a physical network address of a physical node, the virtual node being associated with a virtual network, and the received information identifying the virtual network address of the virtual node and the physical network address of the physical node; and transmitting, by the one or more configured computing systems, a current version of a cryptographic key from the mapping service to the physical node, wherein: a destination node receives from the physical node a packet generated by the virtual node, a hash value of a header of the packet, the hash value being computed using the current version of the cryptographic key, and an identifier of the current version of the cryptographic key; the destination node selects a local version of the cryptographic key based on the received identifier; and the destination node authenticates the received packet when a hash value that is computed locally using the local version of the cryptographic key matches the received hash value.