An apparatus comprising a small flow forwarding module configured to distribute and forward a plurality of packets that correspond to a plurality of small flows over a plurality of paths, a large flow forwarding module configured to distribute and forward a plurality of packets that correspond to a plurality of large flows over the paths, and a packet header checking module in communication with the small flow forwarding module and the large flow forwarding module, wherein the packet header checking module is configured to inspect a flow indication in an incoming packet and forward the packet to the small flow forwarding module if the flow indication corresponds to one of the small flows or to the large flow forwarding module if the flow indication corresponds to one of the large flows.