The deployment of native methods in a virtual machine environment may be significantly simplified by incorporating a corresponding native code segment into the application file, such as a JAVA class file, and using the embedded native code segment for library bind operations of the corresponding class file. At least one of the lugs has at least one recess which is formed adjacent to the connecting region. The entries in the TCAM may represent multiple different data structures that are heterogeneously stored in the TCAM and each data structure may be used by the network device to implement an application related to processing of network traffic.