In a system for transmitting a digital data stream, wherein the data are formatted into a series of virtual containers (VCs) and routed through several paths in parallel - a method for hitless switching between the versions that arrive over the various paths. The method includes inserting into each VC an identifying code and a parity checksum, or, in the case of a multi-segment VC, a checksum for each segment. At the node of convergence the method calls for delaying any received version by a respective amount, such that will cause all the versions to become aligned in time, so that VCs having the same identifying code flow synchronously byte-for-byte. For each received version and for each VC or segment, parity is calculated and compared with the corresponding checksum, to determine a respective error level. The error levels are compared among the versions for each successive VC or segment and the VC or segment with the lowest error level is selected and inserted into an output data stream. Whenever the version, from which a next VC or segment is selected, changes, switching occurs at the boundary between successive VCs or segments, thus avoiding hits.