The control link relies on a proprietary protocol to transmit session state, configuration, and liveliness signals across the nodes. In a J-series chassis cluster, the control link is a physical link connecting the control interfaces on the two nodes of the cluster (the pair ge-0/0/0 and ge-0/0/3).
To set up the control link on J-series devices, you connect the control interfaces on the two devices back-to-back. When you initialize a device in cluster mode, JUNOS software renames the control interface to fxp1 and uses that interface for the cluster control link. To enable the control link to transmit data, the system provides each fxp1 control link interface with an internal IP address.
On an SRX 5600 and SRX 5800 devices, by default, all control ports are disabled. Each SPC in a device has two control ports, and each device can have multiple SPCs plugged into it. To set up the control link in a chassis cluster with SRX 5600 or SRX 5800 devices, you connect and configure the control ports that you will use on each device (fpcn and fpcn) and then initialize the device in cluster mode.