1. A method of processing a packet comprising: receiving a first segment of a packet; determining, based on the first segment, beats of a second segment of the packet containing portions of a key; determining a start time at which the key may begin to be forwarded as a continuous stream, the start time being based on a prediction of when the portions of the key in the second segment will be received; and initiating forwarding the key at the start time to a processing cluster configured to operate rule matching for the packet.