A method performed by a network element acting as a forwarding plane within a software-defined network to reduce negative effects of slow-path packet processing, comprising: receiving, by the network element, a first packet; determining whether the first packet matches any flow entry within a set of one or more flow tables (116A-116N) of the network element, wherein the set of flow tables (116A-116N) comprise a set of one or more flow entries, each of the set of flow entries including a match criteria to be matched against a match portion of incoming packets (130, 132) and a set of one or more actions to be performed for packets having said match portions matching the match criteria of that flow entry; characterized in that: responsive to determining that the first packet does not match any flow entry within the set of flow tables (116A-116N), performing a miss procedure comprising: inserting at least a portion of the first packet as a first entry in a packet miss table, PMT,, wherein the PMT stores portions of packets received by the network element that did not match any flow entry of the set of flow tables (116A-116N) as unprocessed entries; and providing, to a controller, access to the first entry of the PMT upon the controller seeking said access, wherein the controller seeking said access comprises the network element receiving, from the controller, a pull entry request message indicating a request for one or more unprocessed entries of the PMT; and providing said access to the first entry comprises transmitting a pull entry response message to the controller, the pull entry response message comprising at least the first entry of the PMT. receiving, by the network element, a first packet; determining whether the first packet matches any flow entry within a set of one or more flow tables (116A-116N) of the network element, wherein the set of flow tables (116A-116N) comprise a set of one or more flow entries, each of the set of flow entries including a match criteria to be matched against a match portion of incoming packets (130, 132) and a set of one or more actions to be performed for packets having said match portions matching the match criteria of that flow entry; responsive to determining that the first packet does not match any flow entry within the set of flow tables (116A-116N), performing a miss procedure comprising: inserting at least a portion of the first packet as a first entry in a packet miss table, PMT,, wherein the PMT stores portions of packets received by the network element that did not match any flow entry of the set of flow tables (116A-116N) as unprocessed entries; and inserting at least a portion of the first packet as a first entry in a packet miss table, PMT,, wherein the PMT stores portions of packets received by the network element that did not match any flow entry of the set of flow tables (116A-116N) as unprocessed entries; and providing, to a controller, access to the first entry of the PMT upon the controller seeking said access, wherein the controller seeking said access comprises the network element receiving, from the controller, a pull entry request message indicating a request for one or more unprocessed entries of the PMT; and providing said access to the first entry comprises transmitting a pull entry response message to the controller, the pull entry response message comprising at least the first entry of the PMT.