Flow based packet processing

A network interface controller, the controller comprising:

• at least one interface to a communications medium;
• circuitry to:
• determine a flow associated with a packet received via the communications medium;
• and
• determine, based at least in part on the received packet, whether to remove the flow from a list of flows to handle using page-flipping.

A system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• at least one randomly accessible memory communicatively coupled to the processor;
• and
• circuitry to:
• access a packet;
• determine a flow associated with the\packet, wherein the flow comprises a flow identified by, at least, the packet's Internet Protocol (IP) source address, IP destination address, source port, and destination port;
• determine, based, at least in part, on the packet, whether to remove the flow from a list of flows to handle using page-flipping, wherein the determination comprises at least one selected from the following group:
• (a) determining whether a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segment was received out-of-order;
• (b) determining whether the size of the packet falls below a threshold size;
• and
• (c) determining whether the packet comprises an Internet Protocol fragment;