SINGLE LOOKUP ENTRY FOR SYMMETRIC FLOWS

Disclosed is a mechanism for maintaining a single lookup table entry for symmetric/bidirectional flows. Multiple recipes are stored for each flow. A recipe is employed to select address information from an incoming packet header based on the packet's direction. The address information and an index are employed to generate a lookup key to find the single lookup table entry with the pertinent switching information. The recipe further indicates action pointers in the lookup table entry that are specific to direction. The action pointers point to an address in an action table that contains instructions for actions that are applied to the packet during switching based on the packet's direction.