An autonomous network comprising: a plurality of switches at the edge of the autonomous network (110; 210; 310), each switch comprising a plurality of network interfaces and being arranged to forward outgoing packets over the network interfaces to peer networks; a front end device comprising a data packet processor located remotely from the plurality of switches; and a global controller; wherein the global controller is configured to: collect information regarding available Internet routes from a border gateway protocol, BGP, speaker; push information indicative of available routes to the front end device (260, 320); wherein the data packet processor is configured, for an outgoing packet, to: use the information indicative of available routes to identify both one of the plurality of switches to transmit the outgoing data packet out of the network, and a network interface (111; 211; 311) of the identified switch over which the identified switch is to transmit the outgoing data packet; specify the identified switch and the identified network interface in a header of the outgoing data packet; and forward the outgoing data packet to the identified switch, and wherein each switch of the plurality of switches is configured to: receive (7 10) a said outgoing data packet addressed to a device located outside the autonomous network; obtain from the header of the received outgoing data packet, data specifying the network interface over which to transmit the outgoing data packet to a peer network; and transmit the outgoing data packet over the network interface specified in the data obtained from the header. a plurality of switches at the edge of the autonomous network (110; 210; 310), each switch comprising a plurality of network interfaces and being arranged to forward outgoing packets over the network interfaces to peer networks; a front end device comprising a data packet processor located remotely from the plurality of switches; and a global controller; wherein the global controller is configured to: collect information regarding available Internet routes from a border gateway protocol, BGP, speaker; push information indicative of available routes to the front end device (260, 320); collect information regarding available Internet routes from a border gateway protocol, BGP, speaker; push information indicative of available routes to the front end device (260, 320); wherein the data packet processor is configured, for an outgoing packet, to: use the information indicative of available routes to identify both one of the plurality of switches to transmit the outgoing data packet out of the network, and a network interface (111; 211; 311) of the identified switch over which the identified switch is to transmit the outgoing data packet; specify the identified switch and the identified network interface in a header of the outgoing data packet; and forward the outgoing data packet to the identified switch, and use the information indicative of available routes to identify both one of the plurality of switches to transmit the outgoing data packet out of the network, and a network interface (111; 211; 311) of the identified switch over which the identified switch is to transmit the outgoing data packet; specify the identified switch and the identified network interface in a header of the outgoing data packet; and forward the outgoing data packet to the identified switch, and wherein each switch of the plurality of switches is configured to: receive (7 10) a said outgoing data packet addressed to a device located outside the autonomous network; obtain from the header of the received outgoing data packet, data specifying the network interface over which to transmit the outgoing data packet to a peer network; and transmit the outgoing data packet over the network interface specified in the data obtained from the header. receive (7 10) a said outgoing data packet addressed to a device located outside the autonomous network; obtain from the header of the received outgoing data packet, data specifying the network interface over which to transmit the outgoing data packet to a peer network; and transmit the outgoing data packet over the network interface specified in the data obtained from the header.