Naming system layer

A distributed network comprising:

• a plurality of nodes, comprising:
• a named node;
• a destination node;
• and
• a new node that is not initially interconnected to other nodes of the distributed network,
• wherein each one of the nodes is uniquely identified by a hierarchically structured string of identifiers that indicate a physical location associated with the named node;
• and
• a plurality of permanent circuits that communicatively interconnect the plurality of nodes;
• wherein a key associated with each of the nodes is represented as a plurality of hashes,
• wherein each of the keys are associated with one of a plurality of the hierarchical naming rings which its respective node is a member of, and wherein each hierarchical naming ring has a logarithmic distribution (c log d) of its respective keys,
• wherein the new node becomes interconnected with the plurality of nodes of the distributed network when the named node receives an introduce message from the new node at an immediate neighbor node, wherein the new node and the immediate neighbor node are on a portion of the distributed network associated with a first one of the plurality of the hierarchical naming rings, wherein information pertaining to the new node is omitted from a contact table stored by the immediate neighbor node, wherein the contact table identifies each of the existing nodes using a <key, location> pair, and wherein the location of the <key, location> pair identifies a network location of the node,
• wherein a hash for the new node is determined, wherein the determined hash for the new node corresponds to the position of the new node on the first one of the plurality of the hierarchical naming rings,
• wherein a new <key, location> pair of the new node is determined, wherein the key includes the determined hash of the new node on the first one of the plurality of the hierarchical naming rings and the hashes for the remaining ones of the plurality of the hierarchical naming rings associated with the immediate neighbor node, and wherein the location of the new <key, location> pair identifies a network location of the new node, and
• wherein the new <key, location> pair is stored in the contact table of the at least one immediate neighbor node,
• wherein K=hash(N) and is a value in a key-space,
• wherein for each value d between 0 and a key-space size, Nd, is a number of entries in the contact list for N whose keys are a distance less than d from K=hash(N), such that Nd is defined as:
• Nd=|{N′ such that |hash(N)−hash(N′)|<d}|<c log d
• wherein c is a constant, and
• wherein the inequality states that the distribution of the keys of the entries in a node N's contact list occur increasingly sparsely at greater distances from the hash value of N.