the value of key bit c 29 is such that the tree is traversed along path 202 b to node 2 then a further test of key bit c 30 is performed ultimately when traversing along branch 202 a the packet will either be processed according to the action specified by rules a 0 a 1 at node 3 or rule a 5 at node 4 alternately when traversing along branch 202 b the packet will either be processed according to the action specified by rules a 2 or a 4 at node 5 rule a 2 at node 13 or rules a 1 a 2 a 3 b 6 b 7 c 8 or c 9 at node 14 it is understood that more than one rule may exist for the same action type and additionally rules of different action types may appear in the same node e g at node 14 furthermore any rule appearing in the same node may match a key derived from any given packet as mentioned earlier information in the rule is compared with the key to determine if the rule in fact does match the key fig4 illustrates a detailed rule application process for multiple actions as provided at node 14 of fig3 the multiple action support procedure for a classifier rule will be described in greater detail herein in accordance with the present invention action information is defined in a classifier rule i e leaf in a tree and includes action information types attributes and values that are user configurable.