A method and apparatus to search for routing information is described. According to an embodiment, a technique is described to search for routing information that uses a first technique on at least a portion of a first section of an address and a second technique on at least a portion of a second section of an address. In one embodiment, a best-match technique, such as a Longest Prefix Match technique, is used on at least a portion of a topology section of an address, and an exact-match technique is used on a portion of an interface ID of the address.