The main goal of this thesis titled "Packet Classification using Growing Hierarchical Self-Organizing Map" is to validate the possibility of using a new approach for a well know problem. The core idea is to present a possible implementation of a Growing Hierarchical Self-Organized Map (GH-SOM) for use in packet classification in the context of software-defined networking (SDN). SDN applications are characterized by frequent network configuration updates on-the-fly and a large number of rules thereby requiring a highly flexible packet classification mechanism. Moreover, as network bandwidths continue to grow, a high-performance packet classification is imperative.\par Today's technology adopted for packet classification does not scale well in throughput and power consumption as number of rules increase.