OpenSSH Concepts
Internal
sshd
The OpenSSH server.
Tunneling
Local Forwarding
Local forwarding configures ssh tunneling to listen on a local port and forward the data sent into that port to a remote server, on the specified "remote" port.
Remote Forwarding
Remote forwarding configures ssh tunneling to listen on a port on the remote side of the tunnel and forward requests to a local port. This works by allocating a socket to listen to either a TCP port or to a Unix socket on the remote side. Whenever a connection is made to that port or Unix socket, the connection is forwarded over the secure channel, and a connection is made from the local machine to either an explicit destination specified by "host" port "hostport", or "local_socket", or, if no explicit destination was specified, ssh will act as a SOCKS 4/5 proxy and forward connections to the destinations requested by the remote SOCKS client.