What is the Splunk data format of data being forwarded? Splunk website states TCP is format for transmission but its really a protocol for transmission?
The "over the wire" format for Splunk's communications between forwarders and indexers does use TCP as its transport. The "Splunk protocol" inside TCP is Splunk proprietary and (to my knowledge) not documented.
If you are planning to build a receiver for Splunk forwarder data, be aware that Splunk can forward over a plain TCP socket to a 3rd party system. See http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Admin/Forwarddatatothird-partysystems
The "over the wire" format for Splunk's communications between forwarders and indexers does use TCP as its transport. The "Splunk protocol" inside TCP is Splunk proprietary and (to my knowledge) not documented.
If you are planning to build a receiver for Splunk forwarder data, be aware that Splunk can forward over a plain TCP socket to a 3rd party system. See http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Admin/Forwarddatatothird-partysystems