Abstract: A system and method for a system and method for a communication network that includes network devices. The network devices can communicate with each other using the communication network by transmitting and receiving data messages. A first network device and a second network device may each include one or more inputs and one or more outputs. The second network device may be coupled to a host computer. A data message may be created and sent by the first network device to the second network device, where the first data message includes user configurable data, where the user configurable data is configured using the host computer. A network device may offer the flexibility to allocate both analog and discrete data to specific data bytes in the same data message.