A method for symmetric receive-side scaling (RSS) in a network device having an ingress side RRS router and an egress side RSS router and a plurality of queues for handling packets. The method comprises identifying an internet protocol (IP) version being used for the network. The transport layer headers (TLHs) existence status is identified. A secret key by each of the egress side RSS router and the ingress side RSS router is identified. The key is based on the identification of the IP version and the TLHs existence status. The secret key ensures that packets sent from a source to a destination and packets sent from the destination to the source are routed by the egress side RSS router and the ingress side RSS router to a common queue among the plurality of queues. The secret key is stored at a storage in the network device. The secret key is used by the ingress side RSS router and the egress side RSS router for routing packets.