A control system enables transport of payload data across a dual counter rotating ring (DCRR) network having two or more nodes, each node providing access to the DCRR network by a respective local area network (LAN) subtending the node. The control system comprises a topology learning entity operative within each node for monitoring individual, links of the DCRR, discovering the active topology of the DCRR, communicating topology changes to other nodes in the DCRR, and informing frame forwarding and learning processes of the topology to enable failover to redundant resource upon detection of a network component failure. A frame forwarding process selects a shortest path route between a source and a destination node in the DCRR, and forwards frames to the destination node via the selected shortest path route. An address learning process inspects a source medium access control (MAC) address in each received frame to learn a shortest path route for each MAC address.