1. A system for generically communicating between a plurality of heterogeneous network processors in a network and at least one host processor, the system comprising: at least one standardized interface for each of the plurality of heterogeneous network processors; a standardized transport layer, the standardized transport layer compatible with the at least one standardized interface; and a generic message application layer, the generic message application layer defining at least one generic payload and at least one generic message type for configuration communications between the plurality of heterogeneous network processors and the at least one host processor; wherein the at least one host processor utilizes at least one system configuration application for configuring the plurality of heterogeneous network processor, the at least one system configuration application being network processor independent.