Abstract: An apparatus, a search tree structure, methods and computer devices for constructing and using the structure to efficiently accomplish policy based service differentiation in packet networks is presented. This invention reduces the number of steps performed to implement packet classification. It uses a method of preprocessing a given set of policy rules by modeling the conditions in the rules as multidimensional hyper-cubes, a simple and compact search tree is constructed. Using this search tree, packet classification is achieved determining all applicable policies for a packet with a few compare and branch instructions.