A plurality of network packets is received at an input network interface of the network device coupled to the data communication network. The network packets are stored in a plurality of network packets in a hardware queue of a plurality of hardware queues dedicated to a CPU of a plurality of CPUs in accordance with a flow assigned to the network packet. Responsive to successfully identifying a stored hash matching the hash result in the hash table, an associated flow entry is fetched, and the network packet is forwarded to a fast processing path. Responsive to not successfully identifying a stored hash matching the hash result in the hash table, the hash is stored in the hash table, and the network packet is forwarded to the slow processing path. The network packet at an output network interface of the network device according to the flow entry.