Routing bidirectional flows in a stateless routing service

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving a first packet from a first device associated with a first party addressed to a second device associated with a second party, the first packet including a plurality of symmetrical field values;
• identifying a direction agnostic tuple value for the first packet, the direction agnostic tuple value including a set of field values, from the plurality of symmetrical field values, that are ordered, within the direction agnostic tuple value, without regard to symmetrical position within the plurality of symmetrical field values;
• selecting a network appliance to which to route packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value;
• memorializing selection of the network appliance within a routing rule indicating that packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value are to be routed to the network appliance;
• propagating the routing rule to the second device;
• routing the first packet to the network appliance;
• receiving a second packet from the second device addressed to the first device, the second packet including a second plurality of symmetrical field values symmetrically mirroring the plurality of symmetrical field values;
• deriving from the second plurality of symmetrical field values the direction agnostic tuple value;
• identifying the routing rule indicating that packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value are to be routed to the network appliance;
• and
• responsive to identifying the routing rule, routing the second packet to the network appliance.

A system, comprising:

• a data store storing computer executable instructions, and
• one or more computing devices configured to:
• receive a first packet, the first packet including a plurality of symmetrical field values;
• identify a direction agnostic tuple value for the first packet, the direction agnostic tuple value including a set of field values from the plurality of symmetrical field values that are ordered, within the direction agnostic tuple value, without regard to symmetrical position within the plurality of symmetrical field values;
• select a network appliance to which to route packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value;
• memorialize selection of the network appliance within a routing rule indicating that packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value are to be routed to the network appliance;
• route the first packet to the network appliance;
• receive a second packet, wherein the second packet is responsive to the first packet, the second packet including a second plurality of symmetrical field values symmetrically mirroring the plurality of symmetrical field values;
• derive, from the second plurality of symmetrical field values, the direction agnostic tuple value;
• identify the routing rule indicating that packets associated with the direction agnostic tuple value are to be routed to the network appliance;
• and
• based at least in part on the routing rule, route the second packet to the network appliance.