Routing tables for forwarding packets between switches in a data center network

A computing system comprising:

• a processing device associated with a switch of a plurality of switches in a network environment;
• and
• a memory device configured to store a routing table building module that includes instructions configured to enable the processing device to forward packets within the network environment;
• wherein the switch includes a plurality of inward-directed ports configured for direct connection with a plurality of servers, and the switch further includes a plurality of outward-directed ports configured for direct connection with a subset of the plurality of switches;
• wherein the routing table building module is configured to enable the processing device to build a Routing Table (RT) defining how the switch forwards packets via the respective outward-directed ports, the RT including at least a Shortest Path (SP) route and one or more Off-Shortest Path (OSP) routes for forwarding the packets;
• and
• wherein the network environment is a data center, network domain, Local Area Network (LAN), or enterprise network, and wherein the network environment includes a flat network architecture having a structured, pseudo-random arrangement of switch interconnections and having neither aggregation layer switches nor spine layer switches.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to store software associated with a switch interconnected with a plurality of switches of a network environment, the software having instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processing devices within the switch to:

• build a Routing Table (RT) having at least a Shortest Path (SP) route and one or more Off-Shortest Path (OSP) routes, the RT is built by sending Packet Initiated Network Generation (PING) packets to neighboring switches of the plurality of switches, wherein the PING packets include an updated ho metric regarding instructions for forwarding packets to destination switches of the plurality of switches, and wherein the PING packets are appended with already-visited nodes to enable computation of an off-shortest hop count;
• make the RT available to the switch;
• and
• instruct the switch to forward packets to destination switches of the plurality of switches according to the RT.