In one embodiment, forwarding information with respect to a particular data packet is requested from a distributed hash table (DHT) that stores key-network flow information pairs. A plurality of nodes in a network participate in the DHT, each node locally stores network flow information as dictated by a hashing function of the DHT, and the network flow information can be used to process data packets in the network. Then, forwarding information is received from the DHT indicating a destination node of the plurality of nodes to which the particular data packet should be forwarded according to the hashing function of the DHT. The destination node stores network flow information that corresponds to the particular data packet. Finally, the particular data packet is forwarded toward the destination node in order for the particular data packet to be processed using the network flow information stored at the destination node.