An optimum pathway to data stored on a data storage system having N
storage devices and more than N pathways is determined in response to a
read request for the data. A sorter separates the read request into an
appropriate segment size for sending to the storage devices of the data
storage system. An assigner generates the set of read permutations
satisfying the read request. A read permutation is selected based on a
metric. A collector receives the requested data from the N storage
devices in response to the selected read permutation being sent to the
storage devices.