A system and method can provide a flexible buffer management interface in a distributed data grid. At least a portion of a control program is generated that corresponds to a configuration and is used for controlling the control system. The serial information includes a first bit indicating a start of the control data, a predetermined number of bits of the control data following the first bit, and a second bit indicating an end of the predetermined number of bits of the control data. One implementation of the present invention uses an agent to enable an entity to participate in the network without requiring the member to add new hardware or software.