System and method for providing communications in a network using a redundant switching architecture

A system and method for sending and receiving information in a network using a redundant switching architecture. In one embodiment, the method includes generating a communications frame including a first header at a first control element. The first header is mapped to a second header and then the communications frame is encapsulated with a set of two redundant destination addresses whereby two instances of the communications frame are created. The communications frame instances, including the second header and the redundant destination addresses, are sent from the first control element via both a first switching plane and a second switching plane to a second control element. Upon receipt, only one of the communications frame instances is retained by the second control element for upstream processing.