NETCONF in client/server architecture

The NETCONF protocol uses RPCs to facilitate communication between the client (NETCONF Manager or application) and the server (NETCONF Agent or managed device).

A client encodes an RPC request in XML and sends it to a server using a secure, connection-oriented session. The server responds with a reply encoded in XML.

The communication between the client and server consists of a series of alternating request and reply messages. The NETCONF peers use <rpc> and <rpc-reply> elements to provide transport protocol-independent framing of NETCONF requests and responses. The NETCONF server processes the RPC requests sequentially in the order in which they are received.