System and method for industrial control using a high availability backplane

A modular system for industrial control comprising:

• a first module having a first port, a second port and a switching node, the switching node coupled between the first port and the second port;
• and
• a second module having a first port, a second port and a switching node, wherein the second port of the first module is coupled to the first port of the second module, and
• wherein the first module and the second module are coupled via releasable electrical connectors supported on at least one of left and right flanking sides of the first module and at least one of left and right flanking sides of the second module, and
• wherein at least one of the first module and the second module includes a bus slot configured to releasably receive a function card having an embedded switching node and logic configured to bypass the bus slot when a function card is absent.

An industrial automation module for an industrial control system comprising:

• an enclosure providing left and right flanking sides;
• releasable electrical connectors supported on the left and right flanking sides exposed to connect adjacent modules on the left and right sides;
• a plurality of electrical terminals for releasably receiving electrical conductors on a surface of the enclosure;
• an embedded switching node held within the enclosure;
• a bus slot configured to releasably receive a function card having the embedded switching node;
• and
• logic configured to bypass the bus slot when a function card is absent;
• wherein the releasable electrical connectors are configured to provide Ethernet data with a switching node.