1. A method for updating a forwarding table in a packet network device, comprising: defining a first plurality of routing policies for inclusion into a first sequentially numbered list of routing policies; building a radix tree structure with information included in the first sequentially numbered list of routing policies; using information included in an IP prefix stored in the packet network device to search the radix tree structure to identify a routing policy with the lowest sequence number that matches the IP prefix information; and updating the forwarding table with the IP prefix information if the identified routing policy includes an instruction to permit the IP prefix.