Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for providing redundancy for telecommunication switches. A primary telecom switch has an active processing board and a passive I/O board for communicating with external sources, such as a control network and bearer traffic network. A redundant secondary telecom switch has an active processing board and a passive I/O board for communicating with a control network, and is connected to the I/O board of the primary switch through a redundancy connection for communicating with the bearer traffic network. According to the invention, the secondary telecom switch assumes the role of the primary telecom switch in the event that the primary processing board becomes unavailable. The secondary telecom switch then communicates with the bearer traffic network as the master switch through the redundancy connection and the I/O board of the primary switch, thus avoiding the necessity for reconnections and reconfiguration.