The invention generally provides a method for routing data into and out of a network having a plurality of host computers corresponding to a plurality of network topologies. The method of the invention primarily comprises the steps of electing a destination host from the plurality of host computers in the network, determining an addressing methodology for the destination host in accordance with a destination topology out of the plurality of network topologies corresponding to the destination host, addressing the destination host according to the determined addressing methodology, determining a routing path corresponding to the determined addressing methodology, and routing the data to the destination host through the determined routing path. The routing path can be an inbound or an outbound routing path with respect to the network. The method according to the invention further comprises the step of defining the routing path with a host ID comprising a sequence of at least one host address corresponding to at least one of the plurality of host computers.