A direct network is described in which each resource is connected to a switching fabric via a set of two or more routing nodes. The routing nodes are distributed so as to satisfy at least one inter-node separation criterion. In one case, the separation criterion specifies that, for each resource, a number of routing nodes that share a same coordinate value with another routing node in the set (in a same coordinate dimension) is to be minimized. In some network topologies, such as a torus network, this means a number of unique loops of the direct network to which each resource is connected is to be maximized. The routing provisions described herein offer various performance benefits, such as improved latency-related performance.