RFC 1856 (rfc1856) - Page 2 of 17

The Opstat Client-Server Model for Statistics Retrieval

RFC 1856               Opstat Client-Server Model           October 1995


   This document defines a protocol which would allow a client on a
   remote machine to retrieve data from a central server, which itself
   retrieves from the common statistics database.  The client then
   presents the data to the user in the form requested (maybe to a X-
   window, or to paper).

   The basic model used for the retrieval methods defined in this
   document is a client-server model.  This architecture envisions that
   each NOC (or NSP) should install a server which provides locally
   collected information for clients.  Using a query language the client
   should be able to define the network object of interest, the
   interface, the metrics and the time period to be examined.  Using a
   reliable transport-layer protocol (e.g., TCP), the server will
   transmit the requested data.  Once this data is received by the
   client it could be processed and presented by a variety of tools
   including displaying the data in a X window, sending postscript to a
   printer, or displaying the raw data on the user's terminal.

   The remainder of this document describes how the client and server
   interact, describes the protocol used between the client and server,
   and discusses a variety of other issues surrounding the sharing of
   data.

2.0  Client-Server Description

2.1  The Client

   The basic function of the client is to retrieve data from the server.
   It will accept requests from the user, translate those requests into
   the common retrieval protocol and transmit them to the server, wait
   for the server's reply, and send that reply to the user.

   Note that this document does not define how the data should be
   presented to the user.  There are many methods of doing this
   including:

    - use a X based tool that displays graphs (line, histogram, etc.)
    - generate PostScript output to be sent to a printer
    - dump the raw data to the user's terminal

   Future documents based on the Operational Statistics model may define
   standard  graphs  and variables to be displayed, but this is work yet
   to be done (as of this writing).








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