Overview of BIG-IP data plane and control plane

Data plane

Data-plane processing is concerned with the basic process of getting data, whether it be input from a system or requests from users, and returning data (output, files, or responses). Data-plane processing relates to the basic connectivity that handles traffic flow to and from destinations. In the case of the BIG-IP system, the data plane is responsible for almost all runtime network traffic processing, including Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) load balanced traffic. TMM runs as a real-time user process within the BIG-IP operating system (TMOS). For example, the data plane processes traffic for the following:

• Traffic management objects, for example, virtual servers, SNAT, and NAT
• BIG-IP system modules, for example, BIG-IP APM, BIG-IP ASM
• Load balanced traffic between VIPRION blades processed by the appropriate TMM instance

Control plane

The control plane deals with management-related tasks to process management traffic in response to context and policy. For example, the control plane processes management (non-TMM) traffic for the following:

• BIG-IP processes, for example, MCPD and alertd.
• Logging, provisioning, licensing, and configuration sync (ConfigSync)
• VIPRION cluster and blade management traffic
• iControl REST
• SSH, either through the management IP address or a self IP address exposing the HTTPS or SSH ports (443 or 22)
• Monitoring the health of BIG-IP devices and collecting statistics
• The BIG-IP Configuration utility, Traffic Management Shell (tmsh), and TMCTL