Apparatus and method for using information in one direction of a bi-directional flow in a network to alter characteristics of the return direction flow

A network processing system able to link both directions of a bi-directional communication on a network, the network adapted to transport multiple data packets, the data packets forming a plurality of flows wherein the bi-directional communication is formed by one or more flows in each direction, the network processing system comprising:

• a network interface operable to receive data packets from the network and further operable to send processed data packets back onto the network;
• and
• two unidirectional processing engines in communication with the network interface, the two unidirectional processing engines processing network traffic in opposite directions, each processing engine operable to associate each data packet with an identifier, wherein the identifier is associated with the flow of which the data packet is part, each processing engine further operable to extract information from the flow related to a return flow, and further operable to pass the information related to the return flow to the other processing engine, wherein the other processing engine is able to pre-allocate resources in anticipation of the return flow based on the information.