1. A system for monitoring the status of data and components during data packet processing, the system comprising: a packet processor, wherein the packet processor generates processing data based on one or more control structures while revising packet data, wherein the packet processor generates the processing data while performing one or more lookup cycles; and a buffer, wherein the buffer records the processing data and the status of the one or more control structures, wherein the processing data comprises a lookup number, wherein the lookup number identifies the number of cycles performed by the packet processor; wherein the one or more control structures comprise one or more parser control structures, QoS priority control structure and statistic control structure.