Abstract: A multiloop communications system and a method of routing data between stations is disclosed. The communications system has a plurality of interconnected communications loops, each of the loops including a ring-connected set of nodes providing data flow unidirectionally from one node to the next, each of the nodes being capable of passing data through itself along its loop, extracting data from its loop or injecting data into its loop. A first subset of each loop's set of nodes are local nodes which interface a station to its respective loop. A second subset of each loop's set of nodes are gateway nodes which interface to a gateway node of another of the loops. Each of the stations has a logical address unique within the system and each of the nodes has a functional address unique within each node's respective loop.