System for providing fabric activity switch control in a communications system

A system for controlling switching fabrics in a communications switch platform having a data plane for processing data, including an active fabric having an ingress and an egress and establishing a first datapath, a redundant fabric having an ingress and an egress and establishing a second datapath, and a fabric switch selecting one of said fabrics to a system output, comprising:

• a control plane for monitoring said processing of data, including:
• (i) a plurality of monitors operatively connected to monitor the status of elements in said active and redundant fabrics in the data plane;
• and
• (ii) a first fabric activity switch circuit adapted to determine whether said fault occurred in said active fabric, and if so, to generate a fabric activity switch signal directed to said fabric switch to switch to said redundant fabric,
• whereby, the control plane receives data plane fabric status inputs from the data plane and effects control over said fabric switch, but otherwise operates independently of said data plane.