New Set Up

I just want to see if I am on the right path.
I am starting a Home automation Project and like they say, match the Hardware to the software. lol
I just set up some VMware hosts to manage the Process servers like openhab, video Capture, Commutation, and Facial Recitation servers.
I planned to put Openhab on a Linux box instead of a Pi for the power. I am thinking the extra CPU, and Memory will help with some of the larger scripts that might be produced.
The First Question is. Can the Commutation from Linux to Pi be UDP, Can I use my own protocols?
Second, I assumed that I would write my own UDP/TCP Commutation interface on Linux in C, but what are my options on the Pi?
Are there Native Commutations to Connect an OPenhab/Linux to a Pi, that allows the Pi to be an Extension of the Linux server?
Are there C/C++ Native API’s to Openhab Events, Logs…