A configuration scheme for IQC switches that hierarchizes the matching process reduces configuration complexity by performing routing first and port matching afterwards in a three-stage Clos-network switch. This scheme applies the reduction concept of Clos networks to the matching process. This, in turn, results in a feasible size of schedulers for up to Exabit-capacity switches, an independent configuration of the middle stage modules from port matches, a reduction of the matching communication overhead between different stages, and a release of the switching function to the last-stage modules in a three-stage switch. The switching performance of the proposed approach using weight-based and weightless selection schemes is high under uniform and non-uniform traffic. The number of stages of a Clos-network switch can be reduced to two.