A method for operating a local area data network with a plurality of network nodes is disclosed, wherein the network nodes send requests to the data network using request values and each of the network nodes has an associated explicit identifier from a key space. A plurality of network nodes respectively has an associated one or more table entries in a value table distributed over the network nodes. In this case each table entry includes a request value having data associated with the key space and with the request value, the network node being responsible for a request value whose identifier is less than or equal to the request value. For the plurality of network nodes, the frequency with which requests for the request values associated with a respective network node are sent to the respective network node is respectively monitored. If it occurs that the frequency of the requests for one or more request values to a respective network node exceeds a predetermined threshold value then at least the table entry or entries for this or these request values are assigned to at least one other network node which is situated in a request path for the request.