The property you want is that all packets for a given flow take the same path through the network (absent topology changes), to minimize out-of-order packets an

The property you want is that all packets for a given flow take the same path through the network (absent topology changes), to minimize out-of-order packets and ease troubleshooting. A1 +- B1 +- C1 | `- C2 | `- B2 +- C3 `- C4 In this example, if all routers compute the same hash value for a given packet, links B1 -> C2 and B2 -> C4 never get used, for any flows. So all you really need is for each router to make a consistent decision about packets in the same flow. They don't have to use the exact same hashing function. In addition to the cumulus networks link provided in the GP, it looks like Cisco gear also has a per-device salt: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/express-forwarding-cef/116376-technote-cef-00.html#anc5 https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/express-forwar... Note that this has nothing to do with endpoint selection, just the intermediate hops. Edit: I'm also leaving out how the final modulo can produce different selections between layers. So in practice, if you have layers that are different sizes you'd get better utilization. That seems like a fragile thing to depend upon, though.