Linux Netlink as an IP Services Protocol
J. Hadi Salim, Hamid Khosravi, A. Kleen, Alexandr Alexandrovich Kuznetsov · 2003
This document describes Linux Netlink, which is used in Linux both as an intra-kernel messaging system as well as between kernel and user space. The focus of this document is to describe Netlink's functionality as a protocol between a Forwarding Engine Component (FEC) and a Control Plane Component (CPC), the two components that define an IP service. As a result of this focus, this document ignores other uses of Netlink, including its use as a intra-kernel messaging system, as an inter-process communication scheme (IPC), or as a configuration tool for other non-networking or non-IP network services (such as decnet, etc.).