The Control Bus from the EIP patterns allows for the integration system to be monitored and managed from within the framework.
Use a Control Bus to manage an enterprise integration system. The Control Bus uses the same messaging mechanism used by the application data, but uses separate channels to transmit data that is relevant to the management of components involved in the message flow.
In Camel you can manage and monitor using JMX, or by using a Java API from the CamelContext, or from the org.apache.camel.api.management package,
or use the event notifier which has an example here.
From Camel 2.11: we have introduced a new ControlBus Component that allows you to send messages to a control bus Endpoint that reacts accordingly.