Key-based routing

Key-based routing (KBR) is a lookup method used in conjunction with distributed hash tables (DHTs) and certain other overlay networks. While DHTs provide a method to find a host responsible for a certain piece of data, KBR provides a method to find the closest host for that data, according to some defined metric. This may not necessarily be defined as physical distance, but rather the number of network hops.^[1][2][3]