Building Linux based routers

Networking function implementation is often separated into three distinct planes (see Figure 2): the control plane that is responsible for routing updates and setting up tables for forwarding, the data or forwarding plane that does the grunt work of forwarding packets based on the destination address in the packet header, and the management plane that provides for configuration and control of the router. The control and management plane are usually implemented in software while the data plane may be implemented in hardware or software.

Building an open router with a standard platform such as Linux fits in very well with plane separation.