System and method for bouncing traffic in deadlock safe manner

A network may be configured to route traffic in such a way as to avoid packet loss in an event of link failure. The network may include a plurality of inner switches and a plurality of outer switches coupled to the plurality of inner switches. Each inner switch may be configured to receive traffic, determine whether a link to a next hop for the traffic is down, and forward the traffic to another outer switch if the link to the next hop is down. Each outer switch may be configured to bounce traffic received from the first inner switch to a second inner switch if the traffic is received as a result of determining that the link from the inner switch to the next hop is down. The second inner switch may then deliver the traffic, or further bounce the traffic off another outer switch.