iproute2 is a collection of userspace utilities for controlling and monitoring various aspects of networking in the Linux kernel, including routing, network interfaces, tunnels, traffic control, and network-related device drivers.
iproute2 is an open-source project released under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License. Its development is closely tied to the development of networking components of the Linux kernel. As of December 2013[update], iproute2 is maintained by Stephen Hemminger and David Ahern. The original author, Alexey Kuznetsov, was responsible for the quality of service (QoS) implementation in the Linux kernel.[2]
iproute2 collection contains the following command-line utilities:arpd, bridge, ctstat, dcb, devlink, ip, lnstat, nstat, rdma, routef, routel, rtacct, rtmon, rtstat, ss, tc, tipc and vdpa.[3] tc is used for traffic control. iproute2 utilities communicate with the Linux kernel using the netlink protocol. Some of the iproute2 utilities are often recommended over now-obsolete net-tools utilities that provide the same functionality.[4][5] Below is a table of obsolete utilities and their iproute2 replacements.