Systems and methods for security policy organization using a dual bitmap

A network device comprising:

• one or more processing resources;
• and
• instructions that when executed by the one or more processing resources cause the network device to:
• maintain information regarding a plurality of security policies within a dual bitmap based search tree in which a first bitmap and a second bitmap are formatted as information embedded in a node structure in the dual bitmap based search tree;
• receive a packet;
• compare at least a portion of a first field of the packet with a first range, where the first range corresponds to a first bit location in the first bitmap, and wherein the first bit location in the first bitmap is associated with at least a first security policy of the plurality of security policies;
• after determining the at least a portion of the first field is within the first range, access a second bit location in the second bitmap, wherein the second bit location in the second bitmap corresponds to the first bit location in the first bitmap;
• and
• based at least in part upon a value in the second bit location in the second bitmap, apply a set of one or more security policies of the plurality of security policies to the packet.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions that when executed by one or more processing resources of a network device, cause the network device to:

• maintain information regarding a plurality of security policies within a dual bitmap based search tree in which a first bitmap and a second bitmap are formatted as information embedded in a node structure in the dual bitmap based search tree;
• receive a packet;
• compare at least a portion of a first field of the packet with a first range, where the first range corresponds to a first bit location in the first bitmap, and wherein the first bit location in the first bitmap is associated with at least a first security policy of the plurality of security policies;
• after determining the at least a portion of the first field is within the first range, access a second bit location in the second bitmap, wherein the second bit location in the second bitmap corresponds to the first bit location in the first bitmap;
• and
• based at least in part upon a value in the second bit location in the second bitmap, apply a set of one or more security policies of the plurality of security policies to the packet.