Method and system of providing redundancy in a network device

Systems and methods for redundancy in a network device are disclosed. An exemplary device comprises: a controller residing on a data forwarding element (DFE), the DFE performing data forwarding operations; and a first and a second control processor. Each of the control processors has either an active role or a standby role with respect to the DFE controller. The active-role control processor communicates with the DFE to configure the DFE forwarding operations and receives at least some communications from the DFE controller over a virtual channel. The DFE controller directs traffic on the virtual channel that is destined for the active-role control processor to either the first or the second control processor based on which of the control processors currently has the active role.