Methods, apparatus and network architectures relating to the use of a Hop-by-Hop packet forwarding technique using “stepping stone” switches. The network architectures include use of stepping stone switches interspersed with non-stepping stone switches such as conventional network switches comprising network elements such switches, routers, repeaters, etc. The stepping stone switches are configured to route packets as multiplexed flows along tunneled sub-paths between stepping stone switches in a hop-by-hop manner with error recovery, as opposed to conventional routing under which packets are routed from a source to a destination using an arbitrary path or along a (generally) lengthy flow-based path. Accordingly, packets from a source endpoint are routed to a destination endpoint via multiple sub-paths connecting pairs of stepping stone switches, with each sub-path traversing one or more conventional switches and constituting a logical Hop in the Hop-by-Hop route.