The Network Processing Forum (NPF) is delivering specifications for programmable network elements that reduce equipment time-to-market, while increasing time-in-market. ForCES (Forwarding and Control Element Separation) aims to define framework and associated mechanisms for standardizing the exchange of information between the logically separate functionality of the control plane and the forwarding plane. To make good use of the efforts of NPF and TCP reliability, this paper presents a TCP-based lightweight protocol for control plane and forwarding plane communication. This protocol meets many requirements of the ForCES working group charter for a protocol. We provide an evaluation of its applicability for a ForCES protocol. One advantage of this protocol is that it can provide good support for Common Programming Interface (CPI) of NPF. Also it can be easily extended to support new services or new functions. The current version of this protocol has been implemented in our IPv6 core router.