Abstract: A multidimensional ring network includes a plurality of network processing devices that are connected together with a plurality of individual ring networks. Packets are sent between any two network processing devices on the same ring network. Intermediate network processing devices, located on that same ring, between the sending and receiving network processing devices, do not add additional hops to the packet transfer. The intermediate processing devices, between the sending and receiving devices, simply pass the packets through to the next processing device on that ring. The packets are passed through to the destination processing device without the intermediate network processing devices having to read or process the packet headers.