diff --git a/core/store/primitives/src/main/java/org/onosproject/store/primitives/impl/FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator.java b/core/store/primitives/src/main/java/org/onosproject/store/primitives/impl/FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator.java
index 52c91b8..4786fb4 100644
--- a/core/store/primitives/src/main/java/org/onosproject/store/primitives/impl/FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator.java
+++ b/core/store/primitives/src/main/java/org/onosproject/store/primitives/impl/FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.TreeMap;
+import java.util.function.Function;
 
 import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
 
@@ -51,28 +52,35 @@
 public class FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator implements DistributedPrimitiveCreator {
     private final TreeMap<PartitionId, DistributedPrimitiveCreator> members;
     private final List<PartitionId> sortedMemberPartitionIds;
+    private final int buckets;
 
-    public FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator(Map<PartitionId, DistributedPrimitiveCreator> members) {
+    public FederatedDistributedPrimitiveCreator(Map<PartitionId, DistributedPrimitiveCreator> members, int buckets) {
         this.members = Maps.newTreeMap();
         this.members.putAll(checkNotNull(members));
         this.sortedMemberPartitionIds = Lists.newArrayList(members.keySet());
+        this.buckets = buckets;
     }
 
     @Override
     public <K, V> AsyncConsistentMap<K, V> newAsyncConsistentMap(String name, Serializer serializer) {
         checkNotNull(name);
         checkNotNull(serializer);
-        Map<PartitionId, AsyncConsistentMap<String, byte[]>> maps =
+        Map<PartitionId, AsyncConsistentMap<byte[], byte[]>> maps =
                 Maps.transformValues(members,
-                                     partition -> partition.newAsyncConsistentMap(name, null));
-        Hasher<String> hasher = key -> {
-            int hashCode = Hashing.sha256().hashString(key, Charsets.UTF_8).asInt();
-            return sortedMemberPartitionIds.get(Math.abs(hashCode) % members.size());
+                                     partition -> DistributedPrimitives.newTranscodingMap(
+                                             partition.<String, byte[]>newAsyncConsistentMap(name, null),
+                                             HexString::toHexString,
+                                             HexString::fromHexString,
+                                             Function.identity(),
+                                             Function.identity()));
+        Hasher<byte[]> hasher = key -> {
+            int bucket = Math.abs(Hashing.murmur3_32().hashBytes(key).asInt()) % buckets;
+            return sortedMemberPartitionIds.get(Hashing.consistentHash(bucket, sortedMemberPartitionIds.size()));
         };
-        AsyncConsistentMap<String, byte[]> partitionedMap = new PartitionedAsyncConsistentMap<>(name, maps, hasher);
+        AsyncConsistentMap<byte[], byte[]> partitionedMap = new PartitionedAsyncConsistentMap<>(name, maps, hasher);
         return DistributedPrimitives.newTranscodingMap(partitionedMap,
-                key -> HexString.toHexString(serializer.encode(key)),
-                string -> serializer.decode(HexString.fromHexString(string)),
+                key -> serializer.encode(key),
+                bytes -> serializer.decode(bytes),
                 value -> value == null ? null : serializer.encode(value),
                 bytes -> serializer.decode(bytes));
     }