Rtfm : New Attributes for Traffic Flow Measurement

By Handelman, S.

Description
Technical Reference Publication

Excerpt
Introduction: The Real-Time Flow Measurement (RTFM) Working Group (WG) has developed a system for measuring and reporting information about traffic flows in the Internet. This document explores the definition of extensions to the flow measurements as currently defined in [RTFM-ARC]. The new attributes described in this document will be useful for monitoring network performance and will expand the scope of RTFM beyond simple measurement of traffic volumes. A companion document to this memo will be written to define MIB structures for the new attributes. This memo was started in 1996 to advance the work of the RTFM group. The goal of this work is to produce a simple set of abstractions, which can be easily implemented and at the same time enhance the value of RTFM Meters. This document also defines a method for organizing the flow abstractions to augment the existing RTFM flow table.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1 RTFM's Definition of Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 RTFM's Current Definition of Flows and their Attributes . . 3 1.3 RTFM Flows, Integrated Services, IPPM and Research in Flows 4 2 Flow Abstractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1 Meter Readers and Meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 Attribute Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3 Packet Traces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7