|  | [[Whatisarouter-Whatisarouter]] | 
|  | = What is a router? | 
|  |  | 
|  | We often talk about that Camel is a mediation and routing framework; so | 
|  | what exactly is a router and what does it do? | 
|  |  | 
|  | Basically a router just consumes xref:message.adoc[Message] exchanges | 
|  | from some xref:endpoint.adoc[Endpoint], then sends them on to some other | 
|  | xref:endpoint.adoc[Endpoint] using some kind of | 
|  | xref:enterprise-integration-patterns.adoc[Enterprise Integration | 
|  | Patterns]. | 
|  |  | 
|  | For example a router could implement the | 
|  | xref:content-based-router-eip.adoc[Content Based Router] pattern, to route | 
|  | from an endpoint to one or more destination endpoints using a | 
|  | xref:predicate.adoc[Predicate] based on the message content. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Typically a route or router consists of one or more consumers; either an | 
|  | xref:eventDrivenConsumer-eip.adoc[Event Driven Consumer] or a | 
|  | xref:polling-consumer.adoc[Polling Consumer] or possibly a | 
|  | xref:transactional-client.adoc[Transactional Client]. Then there are one | 
|  | or more xref:processor.adoc[Processor] instances which could send the | 
|  | message to one or more endpoints. |