Routing vs. Using Sockets

We’re currently working on migrating from AIX 5.1 using 3.8.1P to AIX 5.3 using Cloverleaf 5.4rev1. In our testing we found a strange thread configuration that I’m curious about.  

In our engine we’re splitting the incoming ADT into 3 different processes.  To do this we have one inbound thread that routes everything to 3 different outbound threads.  Those 3 outbound threads point right back to different sockets on the same box where we have 3 more inbound threads (each on a different process).  I’m told that’s the recommended way of configuring this sort of thing.  That’s not the question.  

While working on setting everything up in 5.4rev1 we noticed that the 3 outbound threads were configured to send everything to a local socket AND route all of their messages to the appropriate inbound thread.

I’m told that using a socket connection between an outbound and inbound thread is preferred.  So, we have removed the routing and are just using the sockets now.

I’m curious though, which is the better solution?  Is routing from an outbound to an inbound even supported?  Which is faster in the engine?

I’m new to all this, so bear with me.  🙂