Access switches of moderate dimensions are interconnected through central switches of large dimensions to form a large-scale switching system. The central switches are configured as latent switches which scale easily to large dimensions. Each access switch has asymmetric connections to the ingress sides and egress sides of the central switches so that paths from an originating access switch to a destination access switch through the central switches are subject to staggered switching delays permitting an access controller of any access switch to select an available path of minimum switching delay for a given flow. Using access switches of 128 dual ports each and central switches of 4096 dual ports each, a switching system of 524288 dual ports is realized. At a port capacity of 10 Gigabits/second, the access capacity exceeds five petabits per second and the bulk of traffic experiences a switching delay below two microseconds.
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