An off-load for processing a data frame containing information has a memory for storing information on a plurality of processing paths. A processor in the off-load engine determines which processing path the data frame is to be processed. Each one of a plurality of processing engines processes the data frame depending on whether the processing engine is within the determined processing path. Some of the processing engines are implemented in hardware and/or data frame type specific software and others makes use of generic software. In some embodiments, the data frame is also parsed for further processing by the processing engines. In some embodiments, a static header is also pre-pended to the data frame to allow easy access to information associated with the data frame by the processing engines.