Systems and methods for packet steering in a multi-core architecture

A method for directing by a flow distributor fragmented network packets to a packet engine of a plurality of packet engines, each of the plurality of packet engines executing on a respective core of a plurality of cores in a multi-core system intermediary to the client and a server, the method comprising:

• a) receiving, from a flow distributor by a packet engine on a first core of the multi-core system intermediary to a client and a server, a client request identifying a first tuple comprising a client internet protocol address, a client port, a server internet protocol address and a server port, the first core selected by the flow distributor to receive the client request based on a hash of the first tuple;
• b) receiving, by the flow distributor, a plurality of fragments of a response from the server to the request of client forwarded to the server by the packet engine on the first core;
• c) distributing, by the flow distributor, the plurality of fragments of the response to a second core responsive to a second hash computed by the flow distributor on the source internet protocol address and destination internet protocol address identified by the plurality of fragments;
• d) storing, by a second packet engine of the second core, the plurality of fragments and performing one or more fragmentation actions on the plurality of fragments;
• and
• e) determining, by a rule of the flow distributor operating on the second core, to direct the plurality of fragments received by the second core to the first core.