1. A method for supporting multifield classification of a packet fragmented into a plurality of fragments in a wire-speed forwarding platform, the method comprising: (a) receiving a fragment of the fragmented packet at the forwarding platform and deriving a key from one or more fields of the received fragment; and (b) performing multifield classification of the received fragment by matching the key to a rule out of a plurality of rules, the rule comprising a plurality of fields including at least one field for specifying whether the received fragment's fragmentation characteristics are to be applied when performing the multifield classification.