Systems and methods are provided for passing data amongst a plurality of switches having a plurality of links attached between the plurality of switches. At a switch, a plurality of load signals are received from a plurality of neighboring switches. Each of the plurality of load signals are made up of a set of values indicative of a load at each of the plurality of neighboring switches providing the load signal. Each value within the set of values provides an indication for each link of the plurality of links attached thereto as to whether the link is busy or quiet. Based upon the plurality of load signals, an output link for routing a received packet is selected, and the received packet is routed via the selected output link.