Fast path complex flow processing

A method comprising:

• receiving, by an ingress interface of a switching device, a plurality of packets associated with a complex ingress flow;
• performing fast path processing of the plurality of packets by the switching device by causing each of the plurality of packets to be classified multiple times, performing multiple flow cache lookups for each of the plurality of packets and applying packet transformations identified by the multiple flow cache lookups to the plurality of packets;
• and
• transmitting, by an egress interface of the switching device, the plurality of packets.

A computer-readable storage medium readable by one or more processing elements of a plurality of processing elements of a virtual router (VR)-based switch, the computer-readable storage medium tangibly embodying a set of instructions executable by one or more processors of the plurality of processing elements to perform method for performing fast path processing of complex flows, the method comprising:

• receiving a packet associated with a complex flow;
• performing a first flow-based packet classification based on a first set of attributes of the packet;
• identifying a first flow processing operation by performing a first flow cache lookup based on the first flow-based packet classification;
• performing the first flow processing operation on the packet;
• after performing the first flow processing operation on the packet, performing a second flow-based packet classification of the packet based on a second set of attributes of the packet;
• identifying a second flow processing operation by performing a second flow cache lookup based on the second flow-based packet classification;
• performing the second flow processing operation on the packet;
• sending the packet to an egress interface of the VR-based switch.