Persistent distribution of connectionless traffic supporting virtual connection migration

A method comprising:

• receiving a data packet at a port that is associated with a connectionless networking protocol;
• distributing the data packet from the port to a first server instance running on a device;
• determining, at the first server instance, whether the data packet is an initial data packet for a new connectionless data stream based on one or more properties of the data packet that are different than a connection identifier of the data packet;
• initiating a new connectionless data stream at the first server instance in response to determining that the data packet is the initial data packet for the new connectionless data stream based on the one or more properties;
• and
• forwarding the data packet from the first server instance to a second server instance running on the device in response to the connection identifier of the data packet being different than a first plurality of connection identifiers that the first server instance generates to identify a first plurality of connectionless data streams initiated between the first server instance and different clients.

A method comprising:

• receiving a first data packet at a particular port of a device, the first data packet comprising a first connection identifier that is in a first range of connection identifiers;
• distributing the first data packet from the particular port to a first server instance running on the device based on the first connection identifier, and the first server instance initiating a first plurality of connectionless data streams with connection identifiers in the first range of connection identifiers;
• processing the data packet at the first server instance in response to the first connection identifier matching to a particular connection identifier generated by the first server instance for one of the first plurality of connectionless data streams;
• receiving a second data packet at the particular port, the second data packet comprising a different second connection identifier that is in a different second range of connection identifiers;
• and
• distributing the second data packet from the particular port to a different second server instance running on the device based on the second connection identifier, and the second server instance initiating a second plurality of connectionless data streams with connection identifiers in the second range of connection identifiers.