A system manages network traffic in a distributed system comprising a plurality of network devices. The network devices are divided into a plurality of network slices, each of the network slices including a subset of the network devices such that there is no overlap of network devices between the network slices. Individual network slices are associated with individual slice controllers, and an individual slice controller is configured to manage network routing of an individual network slice. Each of the individual slice controllers route the network traffic within each respective individual network slice. The network traffic is independently routed based on expected network conditions for each respective individual network slice, and data defining routing decisions is contained within each network slice to limit fault effects between the network slices.