Techniques for selecting paths and/or trunk ports for forwarding traffic flows

A network device comprising:

• a plurality of ports;
• and
• a packet processor configurable to:
• apply one or more mathematical functions to one or more sections of a packet to generate a result value;
• use a first portion of the result value to select an equal-cost-multipath (ECMP) path from a plurality of ECMP paths for forwarding the packet from the network device;
• and
• when the selected ECMP path is a trunk comprising a plurality of trunk ports, use a second portion of the result value to select a trunk port from the plurality of trunk ports, wherein the second portion is different from the first portion, and wherein the first portion and the second portion are non-overlapping portions of the result value.

A network device comprising:

• means for applying one or more mathematical functions to one or more sections of a packet to generate a result value;
• means for using a first portion of the result value to select an equal-cost-multipath (ECMP) path from a plurality of ECMP paths for forwarding the packet from the network device;
• and
• means for, when the selected ECMP path is a trunk comprising a plurality of trunk ports, using a second portion of the result value to select a trunk port from the plurality of trunk ports, wherein the second portion is different from the first portion, and wherein the first portion and the second portion are non-overlapping portions of the result value.