1. A method, comprising: performance of select operations by packet switching device; wherein the packet switching device includes: a plurality of line cards; a route processor including a protocol offload engine and a control plane processing subsystem; and wherein said select operations include running, by the control plane processing subsystem, a protocol application to maintain a forwarding information base (FIB) based on communications with external routing devices; wherein for a particular data item generated by the protocol application to be sent to a particular routing device of said external routing devices, performing particular operations including: protocol processing, by the protocol offload engine, said particular data item to generate one or more particular packets; forwarding said one or more particular packets from the protocol offload engine to a particular line card of the plurality of line cards; determining, by the particular line card, that said one or more particular packets should be sent from a different line card; forwarding, by the particular line card, said one or more particular packets to the different line card; and sending, by the different line card, said one or more particular packets from the packet switching device.