Redundant control architecture for a network device

A network device having a redundant control plane comprising:

• a switch fabric;
• first and second data paths associated with and coupled to said switch fabric,
• a plurality of line cards having input and output ports for receiving data from and transmitting data over corresponding communication links, wherein said line cards are each communicably coupled to said switch fabric via said first and second data paths;
• said line cards, said first and second data paths and said switch fabric forming a data plane for forwarding data units received at an input port of a first line card to an output port of a second line card via said switch fabric over the associated data path;
• first and second control processors, wherein one of said first and second control processors comprises an active control processor and the other one of said first and second control processors comprises a standby control processor during normal operation of said network device;
• and
• first and second control paths associated with and communicably coupling the first and second control processors, respectively, to said plurality of line cards, said first and second control paths being isolated from said first and second data paths;
• said active control processor being operative to selectively transmit control information to said plurality of line cards over the corresponding control path and out of band with respect to said data plane.