A Baseline MIN (Multistage Interconnection Network) architecture network plane has been proposed for widely application to provide fast packet switching. In this paper we present and describe in detail a Baseline network which provides alternative routing. We call this alternative routing based network architecture (ARBNA). Simulation results are given to demonstrate the proposed ARBNA has the ability to provide high throughput, low mean cell delay, high fault tolerance and flexible multicast forwarding under general traffic patterns. The analytical result shows that the rerouting overhead is acceptable. We further compare it to the traditional single-baseline or dual-baseline networks in terms of cost, throughput, cell loss probability and switching delay.