The vSmart controller provides the centralized control plane in a Cisco SD-WAN deployment. It establishes secure control connections with WAN Edge routers and exchanges routing, topology, security, and policy information using OMP. The vSmart controller does not forward user data traffic; data-plane forwarding occurs directly between WAN Edge routers over IPsec or other supported encapsulations. Its function is to distribute reachability information, TLOC information, service routes, centralized policies, application-aware routing policies, and segmentation information that determines how the overlay operates. vBond orchestrates onboarding, authentication facilitation, and NAT traversal for control connections. vManage provides centralized management, monitoring, configuration templates, and operational GUI/API functions. vEdge or Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN routers provide the branch or site data plane and local routing functions. Therefore, among the choices, the vSmart controller is responsible for the centralized control plane of the SD-WAN network. Correctly separating orchestration, management, control, and data-plane roles is a core Cisco SD-WAN design principle.