A system and method are provided for routing received cells through a switch fabric. A plurality of output channels are organized into a plurality of channel groups, wherein each of the channels groups is associated with one or more unique output ports of a Benes network. A plurality of cells destined to one or more of the plurality of channel groups is received at plural input queues. A different output port of the Benes network is selected for one or more of the input queues that contains a cell. Then, one cell is switched from each of one or more input queues through the Benes network to the respective selected output port.