Application-based network packet forwarding

A network device comprising:

• a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein instructions representing one or more modules operable to differentially forward packets based on an application with which the packets are associated;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory storage device and operable to execute the one or more modules, wherein the one or more modules include:
• a receiver module, which when executed by the one or more processors, receives an initial layer 3 (L3) Internet Protocol (IP) packet of an IP flow;
• a classifier module, which when executed by the one or more processors, determines an application with which the initial L3 IP packet is associated by predicting the application based on a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) value contained within a Domain Name System (DNS) request observed by the network device prior to the initial L3 IP packet, wherein the FQDN value is mapped to information identifying the application by means of a database operatively coupled with the classifier module;
• a resolver module, which when executed by the one or more processors, identifies a layer 2 (L2) forwarding rule to be applied to a data frame of the initial L3 IP packet based on the determined application;
• and
• a forwarder module, which when executed by the one or more processors, forwards data frames of the initial L3 IP packet and subsequent L3 IP packets associated with the IP flow based on the identified L2 forwarding rule.