It is similar to the XML-RPC protocol, defining only a few data types and commands.
JSON-RPC works by sending a request to a server implementing this protocol.
The client in that case is typically software intending to call a single method of a remote system.
[1] A request is a call to a specific method provided by a remote system.
Although <-- is often called a response in client–server computing, depending on the JSON-RPC version it does not necessarily imply an answer to a request.