1. A system for controlling an industrial process using a plurality of distributed control nodes, comprising: a plurality of Device DCNs, each Device DCN including an I/O interface coupled with a field device for single channel input or output; a plurality of Application DCNs; and one or more Ethernet switches; wherein the plurality of Device DCNs and the plurality of Application DCNs are adapted to host a software runtime and communicatively coupled via the one or more Ethernet switches, and wherein the software runtime is configured to selectively provide control application level communication and function block execution services.