The NETCONF protocol uses RPCs to facilitate communication between the client (NETCONF Manager or application) and the server (NETCONF Agent or managed device).
The NETCONF client encodes an RPC request in XML and sends it to the 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. NETCONF peers use <rpc> and <rpc-reply> elements to provide transport protocol-independent framing of NETCONF requests and responses. The NETCONF server processes these RPC requests sequentially in the order in which they are received.