System and method for tolerating control link faults in a packet communications switch fabric

A system and method are provided for tolerating control link faults in a packet communications switch fabric. The method comprises: accepting information packets including a plurality of cells, at a plurality of port card ports, the plurality of information packets addressing a plurality of port card ports; selectively connecting port card ports to port card backplane data links; in response to backplane control link communications, selectively connecting port card backplane data links and crossbars; sensing a connection fault in a control link; and, in response to sensing the control link fault, reselecting connections between the port card ports and the port card backplane data links. In some aspects, selectively connecting port card backplane data links and crossbars includes: for a particular backplane data link, fixedly connecting each port card to a corresponding interface of an assigned crossbar; and, selectively enabling the connection to each crossbar.