Patent ID: 8520672

Claim:
A method, comprising: creating, by a packet switching device, a request packet corresponding to a particular packet of a flow of packets, with the flow of packets including: a particular packet and a plurality of other packets, wherein the flow of packets is a sequence of related packets; sending, by the packet switching device, the request packet to an application node of one or more application nodes remote from the packet switching device, wherein the request packet including the particular packet; applying one or more services, by said one or more application nodes, to the particular packet to generate a particular result; receiving, by the packet switching device, a response packet including the particular result, with the response packet corresponding to said sent request packet; and processing, by the packet switching device, the particular packet and each packet of the plurality of other packets according to the particular result, without the plurality of other packets being sent to one or more application nodes prior to said processing of the plurality of other packets.