In an embodiment, a send thread receives an identifier that identifies a destination node and a pointer to data. The send thread creates a first send request in response to the receipt of the identifier and the data pointer. The send thread selects a selected channel from among a plurality of channels. The selected channel comprises a selected hand-off queue and an identification of a selected message unit. Each of the channels identifies a different message unit. The selected hand-off queue is randomly accessible. If the selected hand-off queue contains an available entry, the send thread adds the first send request to the selected hand-off queue. If the selected hand-off queue does not contain an available entry, the send thread removes a second send request from the selected hand-off queue and sends the second send request to the selected message unit.