System and method for achieving hardware acceleration for asymmetric flow connections

A network traffic management device, comprising a hardware component configured for processing packets, one or more processors, and a software component, wherein:

• the hardware component comprises configurable hardware logic configured to:
• receive one or more data packets associated with a sub-flow within a connection containing at least two sub-flows wherein each sub-flow is associated with a direction within the connection;
• determine when a flow entry exists in a flow cache table of the hardware component for a sub-flow associated with the one or more data packets;
• and
• the software component comprises memory comprising programmed instructions stored thereon and the one or more processors are configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to, when the determining indicates that the flow entry does not exist in the flow cache table:
• generate a snoop header for the one or more data packets that comprises flow signature information comprising a flow signature entry and transformation information comprising a transformation data entry for each of a first flow direction of the sub-flow of the connection and a second flow direction opposite the first flow direction of the sub-flow of the connection, and
• provide the snoop header comprising the flow signature information and the transformation information to the hardware component for incorporation into the flow cache table for further processing of the one or more data packets associated with the sub-flow;
• and
• the configurable hardware logic component is further configured to, when the determining indicates that the flow entry does exist in the flow cache table:
• obtain the flow signature information and the transformation information from the flow cache table,
• transform the one or more data packets using at least one of the flow signature information and the transformation information, and
• transmit the one or more transformed data packets through the sub-flow of the connection associated with the one or more data packets.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for processing network packets comprising executable code which when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to, when a hardware component determines that a flow entry does not exist in a flow cache table:

• generate a snoop header for the one or more data packets that comprises flow signature information comprising a flow signature entry and transformation information comprising a transformation data entry for each of a first flow direction of the sub-flow of the connection and a second flow direction opposite the first flow direction of the sub-flow of the connection, and
• provide the snoop header comprising the flow signature information and the transformation information to the hardware component for incorporation into the flow cache table for further processing of the one or more data packets associated with the sub-flow, wherein the hardware component comprises configurable hardware logic configured to, when the hardware component determines that the flow entry does exist in the flow cache table:
• obtain the flow signature information and the transformation information from the flow cache table,
• transform the one or more data packets using at least one of the flow signature information and the transformation information, and
• transmit the one or more transformed data packets through the sub-flow of the connection associated with the one or more data packets.