US Patent 7471687 Distribution of identifiers in serverless networks

A method for assigning identifiers in a distributed system involves establishing a circle as a locus of all identifiers, with the value of any point on the circle being the portion of one complete revolution in a first direction around the circle to the point, measured from a first zero point, and selecting values to be assigned as identifiers as needed by rounds of assignment, wherein the beginning and end of any round of assignment has identifiers assigned with point values that divide the circle into equal-length sectors. The method is useful in and applied to serverless telephony systems.