An architecture provides capabilities to transport and process Internet
Protocol (IP) packets from Layer 2 through transport protocol layer and
may also provide packet inspection through Layer 7. A set of engines may
perform pass-through packet classification, policy processing and/or
security processing enabling packet streaming through the architecture at
nearly the full line rate. A scheduler schedules packets to packet
processors for processing. An internal memory or local session database
cache stores a session information database. The session information that
is not in the internal memory is stored and retrieved to/from an
additional memory. An application running on an initiator or target can a
region of memory, which is made available to its peer for access without
substantial host intervention through RDMA data transfer. A security
system is also disclosed that enables a new way of implementing security
capabilities inside enterprise networks in a distributed manner.