A system and method for adding routing information for a node to a routing table, which efficiently makes necessary changes to the routing table to support routing to and from the node, while maintaining the deadlock-free quality of the paths described by the routing table. The routing table is generated by storing routing information in the routing table that reflects and describes a deadlock-free set of paths through a network of nodes. A row of entries is added to the routing table describing how to forward data units from the node. A column of entries is added to the routing table describing how to forward data units addressed to the node. The forwarding information within each entry added to the routing table maintains the deadlock-free quality of the set of paths represented by the forwarding table.