Asymmetric application identification detection on switches

A first ingress interface on a switch receives a first control packet for establishing a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) session and selects a first engine running on a first line card in the switch. A second ingress interface receives a second control packet and selects the same first engine. Data associated with the TCP session received by the first or second ingress interface subsequent to establishing the TCP session is to be forwarded to the first engine. The first ingress interface receives a third control packet and sends, to the selected first engine, a notification indicating the TCP session which is to be tracked. The first or second ingress interface receives a fourth packet with a payload associated with the TCP session and forwards, to the selected first engine, a copy of the fourth packet, thereby facilitating a plurality of engine instances to support application identification.