An example method of submitting a federated query to one or more data sources belonging to a federation includes splitting a zone into a plurality of zone subsets. The zone includes a plurality of data sources belonging to a federation. The plurality of zone subsets has disjoint sets of data sources belonging to the federation. The method also includes receiving a federated query from a client. The federated query includes a plurality of source queries. Each source query of the plurality of source queries is specific to an autonomous data source belonging to the federation. The method further includes determining the client's assigned zone subset of the plurality of zone subsets. The method also includes submitting the federated query to the client's assigned zone subset. The plurality of source queries is submitted to one or more data sources in the zone subset to which the client is assigned.