Abstract: A method and apparatus is described for enabling efficient, bilateral communications in a network connecting a plurality of target address modules and a plurality of source address generators. The source address generators are enabled to generate requests to target addresses within the target address modules. The function of the network is to forward the requests to the target address modules holding the respective target addresses and to return the replies generated by the target address module to the respective source address generators. The network interconnects the source generators to each target address module and vice versa. The interconnection network includes a plurality of interconnected nodes, each node having M inputs and N outputs (where M may or may not be equal to N) and a processor for carrying out a communication protocol. The protocol comprises each node first placing incoming target addresses from messages appearing on the node's inputs into a queue associated with each respective input.