diff --git a/docs/weavenpc-design.md b/docs/weavenpc-design.md
index 5b1693bf..5827e57f 100644
--- a/docs/weavenpc-design.md
+++ b/docs/weavenpc-design.md
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ NetworkPolicy object updates from the k8s API server:
   network policy, containing the IP addresses of all pods in the
   namespace whose labels match that selector
 
+IPsets are implemented by the kernel module `xt_set`, without which
+weave-npc will not work.
+
 ipset names are generated deterministically from a string
 representation of the corresponding label selector. Because ipset
 names are limited to 31 characters in length, this is done by taking a
@@ -94,6 +97,9 @@ The following traffic is NOT affected:
   (e.g. kubelet health checks)
 * Traffic routed from an application container to the internet
 
+The above mechanism relies on the kernel module `br_netfilter` being
+loaded and enabled via `/proc/sys/net/bridge/bridge-nf-call-iptables`.
+
 See these resources for helpful context:
 
 * http://ebtables.netfilter.org/br_fw_ia/br_fw_ia.html