A fabric control protocol (FCP) and packet forwarding mechanisms are described that maximize utilization of bandwidth within massive, large-scale data centers having multi-stage data center switch fabric topologies, such as topologies that include a third switching layer formed by super spine switches. Automatic generation of data plane forwarding information referred to as FCP path information enumerates, for each data processing unit (DPU), the available FCP paths. The FCP path information may be based on unique combinations of peak points of the switch fabric for a given DPU with FCP colors assigned to network links that are used to multi-home the DPU to the switch fabric.