RFC 2063 (rfc2063) - Page 1 of 37
Traffic Flow Measurement: Architecture
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group N. Brownlee
Request for Comments: 2063 The University of Auckland
Category: Experimental C. Mills
BBN Systems and Technologies
G. Ruth
GTE Laboratories, Inc.
January 1997
Traffic Flow Measurement: Architecture
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any
kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This document describes an architecture for the measurement and
reporting of network traffic flows, discusses how this relates to an
overall network traffic flow architecture, and describes how it can
be used within the Internet. It is intended to provide a starting
point for the Realtime Traffic Flow Measurement Working Group.
Table of Contents
1 Statement of Purpose and Scope 2
2 Traffic Flow Measurement Architecture 4
2.1 Meters and Traffic Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Interaction Between METER and METER READER . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Interaction Between MANAGER and METER . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Interaction Between MANAGER and METER READER . . . . . . . . 7
2.5 Multiple METERs or METER READERs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6 Interaction Between MANAGERs (MANAGER - MANAGER) . . . . . . 8
2.7 METER READERs and APPLICATIONs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3 Traffic Flows and Reporting Granularity 9
3.1 Flows and their Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 Granularity of Flow Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 Rolling Counters, Timestamps, Report-in-One-Bucket-Only . . 13
4 Meters 15
4.1 Meter Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 Flow Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.3 Packet Handling, Packet Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4 Rules and Rule Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.5 Maintaining the Flow Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.6 Handling Increasing Traffic Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Brownlee, et. al. Experimental