Patent ID: 8068443

Claim:
At a node in an overlay network, the node including a processor and system memory, the overlay network including a plurality nodes, each node in the plurality of nodes being assigned responsibility for a range of identifiers on the overlay network, a method for replicating timers within the overlay network, the method comprising: receiving data for a process at the node, the node being assigned responsibility responsible for a specified range of identifiers on the overlay network, the process identified by an identifier within the specified range of identifiers; the process processing the data to partially completed a portion of work; the process outputting a timer based on the partially completed portion of work, the timer indicative of an amount of time that further progress towards completing the portion of work is to be suspended, the timer including deferred data that is to be processed when further progress towards completing the portion of work is resumed and the timer including a designated time indicating when the timer is to expires and further progress towards completing the portion of work is to be resumed; supplementing the timer with the identifier; and replicating the timer to a plurality of other nodes on the overlay network for storage in durable storage at the plurality of other nodes, replicating the timer increasing the availability of the deferred data such that if responsibility for the identifier is subsequently reassigned to one of the plurality of other nodes, the deferred data is available to the process when the timer expires and further progress towards completing the portion of work is to resume.