Connection states information tables

[Lorenzo Rossi <condor_rl@libero.it>]

Hi,
 i have a question concerning the tables where are maintained the
 informations about the connections state. 
 I configured my firewall script with the following lines, to permit the
 SSH traffic originated from the protected zone to go to Internet.

 iptables -A TCP_IN -i $INTERFACE -p tcp --sport 22 -m state --state
 ESTABLISHED -J ACCEPT

 iptables -A TCP_OUT -o $INTERFACE -p tcp --dport 22 -m state --state
 NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

The custom chain TCP_IN is listed in the default INPUT chain.
The custom chain TCP_OUT is listed in the dafault OUTPUT chain.
The dafault policy for the INPUT and OUTPUT chains, as you can imagine,
is to DROP.

 My question is:
 How many state tables are used? one table for each main chain?
 One for INPUT and one for OUTPUT?

 I'm a bit confused..... :)

 Thanks
 Lorenzo