Inbound routers are the router component that interacts with service consumers. From a service consumer's point of view, the inbound router looks like any other service provider. It consumes requests and returns responses.

From the router's point of view, the inbound router is a simple valve. When requests are received, the inbound router feeds the message data into the router core. When are response is returned through the router, the inbound router takes the message data and sends it back to the requester using the Celtix Advanced Service Engine's messaging layer.