In some embodiments, data cells can be routed through the switch fabric 200 using a random data path, including a second stage switch module 214 that is randomly selected by a first stage switch module 212, and/or a third stage switch module 216 that is randomly selected by the second stage switch module 214. Specifically, after receiving a data cell, a first stage switch module 212 can randomly select an egress port from a list of egress ports within the first stage switch module 212 to send the data cell to one of the second stage switch modules 214. An approach for randomly selecting an egress port from a list of egress ports is described in detail below with respect to