Network Working Group                                       S. Handelman
Request for Comments: 2724                                    S. Stibler
Category: Experimental                                               IBM
                                                            N. Brownlee
                                             The University of Auckland
                                                                G. Ruth
                                                    GTE Internetworking
                                                           October 1999


          RTFM: New Attributes for Traffic Flow Measurement

Status of this Memo

  This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
  community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
  Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

  The RTFM Traffic Measurement Architecture provides a general
  framework for describing and measuring network traffic flows.  Flows
  are defined in terms of their Address Attribute values and measured
  by a 'Traffic Meter'.  This document discusses RTFM flows and the
  attributes which they can have, so as to provide a logical framework
  for extending the architecture by adding new attributes.

  Extensions described include Address Attributes such as DSCodePoint,
  SourceASN and DestASN, and Group Attributes such as short-term bit
  rates and turnaround times.  Quality of Service parameters for
  Integrated Services are also discussed.

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
     2.4 Aggregate Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8



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     2.5 Group Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     2.6 Actions on Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
  3  Extensions to the 'Basic' RTFM Meter  . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
     3.1 Flow table extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
     3.2 Specifying Distributions in RuleSets  . . . . . . . . . . .11
     3.3 Reading Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
  4  Extensions to the Rules Table, Attribute Numbers  . . . . . . .13
  5  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
  6  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
  7  Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
  8  Full Copyright Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

1  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.

  Implementations of the RTFM Meter have been done by Nevil Brownlee in
  the University of Auckland, NZ, and Stephen Stibler and Sig Handelman
  at IBM in Hawthorne, NY, USA. The RTFM WG has also defined the role
  of the Meter Reader whose role is to retrieve flow data from the
  Meter.

  Note on flows and positioning of meters:

     A flow as it traverses the Internet may have some of its
     characteristics altered as it travels through Routers, Switches,
     and other network units.  It is important to note the spatial
     location of the Meter when referring to attributes of a flow.  An
     example, a server may send a sequence of packets with a definite
     order, and inter packet timing with a leaky bucket algorithm.  A
     meter reading downstream of the leaky bucket would record a set
     with minimal inter packet timing due to the leaky bucket.  At the
     client's location, the packets may arrive out of sequence, with



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     the timings altered.  A meter at the client's location would
     record different attributes for the same flow.

1.1  RTFM's Definition of Flows

  The RTFM Meter architecture views a flow as a set of packets between
  two endpoints (as defined by their source and destination attribute
  values and start and end times), and as BI-DIRECTIONAL (i.e. the
  meter effectively monitors two sub-flows, one in each direction).

  Reasons why RTFM flows are bi-directional:

     -  The WG is interested in understanding the behavior of sessions
        between endpoints.

     -  The endpoint attribute values (the "Address" and "Type" ones)
        are the same for both directions; storing them in bi-
        directional flows reduces the meter's memory demands.

     -  'One-way' (uni-directional) flows are a degenerate case.
        Existing RTFM meters can handle this by using one of the
        computed attributes (e.g. FlowKind) to indicate direction.

1.2  RTFM's Current Definition of Flows and their Attributes

  Flows, as described in the "Architecture" document [RTFM-ARC] have
  the following properties:

  a. They occur between two endpoints, specified as sets of attribute
     values in the meter's current rule set.  A flow is completely
     identified by its set of endpoint attribute values.

  b. Each flow may also have values for "computed" attributes (Class
     and Kind).  These are directly derived from the endpoint attribute
     values.

  c. A new flow is created when a packet is to be counted that does not
     match the attributes of an existing flow. The meter records the
     time when this new flow is created.

  d. Attribute values in (a), (b) and (c) are set when the meter sees
     the first packet for the flow, and are never changed.

  e. Each flow has a "LastTime" attribute, which indicates the time the
     meter last saw a packet for the flow.






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  f. Each flow has two packet and two byte counters, one for each flow
     direction (Forward and Backward).  These are updated as packets
     for the flow are observed by the meter.

  g. ALL the attributes have (more or less) the same meaning for a
     variety of protocols; IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet and CLNS as well as
     TCP/IP.

  Current flow attributes - as described above - fit very well into the
  SNMP data model.  They are either static, or are continuously updated
  counters.  They are NEVER reset.  In this document they will be
  referred to as "old-style" attributes.

  It is easy to add further "old-style" attributes, since they don't
  require any new features in the architecture.  For example:

     -  Count of the number of "lost" packets (determined by watching
        sequence number fields for packets in each direction; only
        available for protocols which have such sequence numbers).

     -  In the future, RTFM could coordinate directly with the Flow
        Label from the IPv6 header.

1.3  RTFM Flows, Integrated Services, IPPM and Research in Flows

  The concept of flows has been studied in various different contexts.
  For the purpose of extending RTFM, a starting point is the work of
  the Integrated Services WG. We will measure quantities that are often
  set by Integrated Services configuration programs.  We will look at
  the work of the Benchmarking/IP Performance Metrics Working Group,
  and also look at the work of Claffy, Braun and Polyzos [C-B-P]. We
  will demonstrate how RTFM can compute throughput, packet loss, and
  delays from flows.

  An example of the use of capacity and performance information is
  found in "The Use of RSVP with IETF Integrated Services" [IIS-RSVP].
  RSVP's use of Integrated Services revolves around Token Bucket Rate,
  Token Bucket Size, Peak Data Rate, Minimum Policed Unit, Maximum
  Packet Size, and the Slack term.  These are set by TSpec, ADspec and
  FLowspec (Integrated Services Keywords), and are used in
  configuration and operation of Integrated Services.  RTFM could
  monitor explicitly Peak Data Rate, Minimum Policed Unit, Maximum
  Packet Size, and the Slack term.  RTFM could infer details of the
  Token Bucket.  The WG will develop measures to work with these
  service metrics.  An initial implementation of IIS Monitoring has
  been developd at CEFRIEL in Italy [IIS-ACCT].





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  RTFM will work with several traffic measurements identified by IPPM
  [IPPM-FRM]. There are three broad areas in which RTFM is useful for
  IPPM.

     -  An RTFM Meter could act as a passive device, gathering traffic
        and performance statistics at appropriate places in networks
        (server or client locations).

     -  RTFM could give detailed analyses of IPPM test flows that pass
        through the Network segment that RTFM is monitoring.

     -  RTFM could be used to identify the most-used paths in a network
        mesh, so that detailed IPPM work could be applied to these most
        used paths.

2  Flow Abstractions

  Performance attributes include throughput, packet loss, delays,
  jitter, and congestion measures.  RTFM will calculate these
  attributes in the form of extensions to the RTFM flow attributes
  according to three general classes:

     -  'Trace', attributes of individual packets in a flow or a
        segment of a flow (e.g. last packet size, last packet arrival
        time).

     -  'Aggregate', attributes derived from the flow taken as a whole
        (e.g. mean rate, max packet size, packet size distribution).

     -  'Group', attributes that depend on groups of packet values
        within the flow (e.g. inter-arrival times, short-term traffic
        rates).

  Note that attributes within each of these classes may have various
  types of values - numbers, distributions, time series, and so on.

2.1  Meter Readers and Meters

  A note on the relation between Meter Readers and Meters.

  Several of the measurements enumerated below can be implemented by a
  Meter Reader that is tied to a meter with very short response time
  and very high bandwidth.  If the Meter Reader and Meter can be
  arranged in such a way, RTFM could collect Packet Traces with time
  stamps and provide them directly to the Meter Reader for further
  processing.





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  A more useful alternative is to have the Meter calculate some flow
  statistics locally.  This allows a looser coupling between the Meter
  and Meter Reader.  RTFM will monitor an 'extended attribute'
  depending upon settings in its Rule table.  RTFM will not create any
  "extended attribute" data without explicit instructions in the Rule
  table.

2.2  Attribute Types

  Section 2 described three different classes of attributes; this
  section considers the "data types" of these attributes.

  Packet Traces (as described below) are a special case in that they
  are tables with each row containing a sequence of values, each of
  varying type.  They are essentially 'compound objects' i.e. lists of
  attribute values for a string of packets.

  Aggregate attributes are like the 'old-style' attributes.  Their
  types are:

     -  Addresses, represented as byte strings (1 to 20 bytes long)

     -  Counters, represented as 64-bit unsigned integers

     -  Times, represented as 32-bit unsigned integers

  Addresses are saved when the first packet of a flow is observed.
  They do not change with time, and they are used as a key to find the
  flow's entry in the meter's flow table.

  Counters are incremented for each packet, and are never reset.  An
  analysis application can compute differences between readings of the
  counters, so as to determine rates for these attributes.  For
  example, if we read flow data at five-minute intervals, we can
  calculate five-minute packet and byte rates for the flow's two
  directions.

  Times are derived from the FirstTime for a flow, which is set when
  its first packet is observed.  LastTime is updated as each packet in
  the flow is observed.

  All the above types have the common feature that they are expressed
  as single values.  At least some of the new attributes will require
  multiple values.  If, for example, we are interested in inter-packet
  time intervals, we can compute an interval for every packet after the
  first.  If we are interested in packet sizes, a new value is obtained
  as each packet arrives.  When it comes to storing this data we have
  two options:



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     -  As a distribution, i.e. in an array of 'buckets'.  This method
        is a compact representation of the data, with the values being
        stored as counters between a minimum and maximum, with defined
        steps in each bucket.  This fits the RTFM goal of compact data
        storage.

     -  As a sequence of single values.  This saves all the
        information, but does not fit well with the RTFM goal of doing
        as much data reduction as possible within the meter.

  Studies which would be limited by the use of distributions might well
  use packet traces instead.

  A method for specifying the distribution parameters, and for encoding
  the distribution so that it can be easily read, is described in
  section 3.2.

2.3  Packet Traces

  The simplest way of collecting a trace in the meter would be to have
  a new attribute called, say, "PacketTrace". This could be a table,
  with a column for each property of interest.  For example, one could
  trace:

     -  Packet Arrival time (TimeTicks from sysUpTime, or microseconds
        from FirstTime for the flow).

     -  Packet Direction (Forward or Backward)

     -  Packet Sequence number (for protocols with sequence numbers)

     -  Packet Flags (for TCP at least)

  Note:  The following implementation proposal is for the user who is
  familiar with the writing of rule sets for the RTFM Meter.

     To add a row to the table, we only need a rule which PushPkts the
     PacketTrace attribute.  To use this, one would write a rule set
     which selected out a small number of flows of interest, with a
     'PushPkt PacketTrace' rule for each of them.  A MaxTraceRows
     default value of 2000 would be enough to allow a Meter Reader to
     read one-second ping traces every 10 minutes or so.  More
     realistically, a MaxTraceRows of 500 would be enough for one-
     minute pings, read once each hour.

  Packet traces are already implemented by the RMON MIB [RMON-MIB,
  RMON2-MIB], in the Packet Capture Group.  They are therefore a low
  priority for RTFM.



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2.4  Aggregate Attributes

  RTFM's "old-style" flow attributes count the bytes and packets for
  packets which match the rule set for an individual flow.  In addition
  to these totals, for example, RTFM could calculate Packet Size
  statistics.  This data can be stored as distributions, though it may
  sometimes be sufficient to simply keep a maximum value.

  As an example, consider Packet Size.  RTFM's packet flows can be
  examined to determine the maximum packet size found in a flow.  This
  will give the Network Operator an indication of the MTU being used in
  a flow.  It will also give an indication of the sensitivity to loss
  of a flow, for losing large packets causes more data to be
  retransmitted.

  Note that aggregate attributes are a simple extension of the 'old-
  style' attributes; their values are never reset.  For example, an
  array of counters could hold a 'packet size' distribution.  The
  counters continue to increase, a meter reader will collect their
  values at regular intervals, and an analysis application will compute
  and display distributions of the packet size for each collection
  interval.

2.5  Group Attributes

  The notion of group attributes is to keep simple statistics for
  measures that involve more than one packet.  This section describes
  some group attributes which it is feasible to implement in a traffic
  meter, and which seem interesting and useful.

  Short-term bit rate - The data could also be recorded as the maximum
  and minimum data rate of the flow, found over specific time periods
  during the lifetime of a flow; this is a special kind of
  'distribution'.  Bit rate could be used to define the throughput of a
  flow, and if the RTFM flow is defined to be the sum of all traffic in
  a network, one can find the throughput of the network.

  If we are interested in '10-second' forward data rates, the meter
  might compute this for each flow of interest as follows:

     -  maintain an array of counters to hold the flow's 10-second data
        rate distribution.

     -  every 10 seconds, compute and save 10-second octet count, and
        save a copy of the flow's forward octet counter.






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  To achieve this, the meter will have to keep a list of aggregate
  flows and the intervals at which they require processing.  Careful
  programming is needed to achieve this, but provided the meter is not
  asked to do it for very large numbers of flows, it has been
  successfully implemented.

  Inter-arrival times.  The Meter knows the time that it encounters
  each individual packet.  Statistics can be kept to record the inter-
  arrival times of the packets, which would give an indication of the
  jitter found in the Flow.

  Turn-around statistics.  Sine the Meter knows the time that it
  encounters each individual packet, it can produce statistics of the
  time intervals between packets in opposite directions are observed on
  the network.  For protocols such as SNMP (where every packet elicits
  an answering packet) this gives a good indication of turn-around
  times.

  Subflow analysis.  Since the choice of flow endpoints is controlled
  by the meter's rule set, it is easy to define an aggregate flow, e.g.
  "all the TCP streams between hosts A and B."  Preliminary
  implementation work suggests that - at least for this case - it
  should be possible for the meter to maintain a table of information
  about all the active streams.  This could be used to produce at least
  the following attributes:

     -  Number of streams, e.g. streams active for n-second intervals.
        Determined for TCP and UDP using source-dest port number pairs.

     -  Number of TCP bytes, determined by taking difference of TCP
        sequence numbers for each direction of the aggreagate flow.

  IIS attributes.  Work at CEFRIEL [IIS-ACCT] has produced a traffic
  meter with a rule set modified 'on the fly' so as to maintain a list
  of RSVP-reserved flows.  For such flows the following attributes have
  been implemented (these quantities are defined in [GUAR-QOS]):















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     - QoSService:          Service class for the flow
                              (guaranteed, controlled load)
     - QoSStyle:            Reservation setup style
                              (wildcard filter, fixed filter,
                              shared explicit)
     - QoSRate:             [byte/s] rate for flows with
                              guaranteed service
     - QoSSlackTerm:        [microseconds] Slack Term QoS parameter
                              for flows with guaranteed service
     - QoSTokenBucketRate:  [byte/s] Token Bucket Rate QoS parameter
                              for flows with guaranteed or
                              controlled load service

     The following are also being considered:

     - QoSTokenBucketSize:  [byte] Size of Token Bucket

     - QoSPeakDataRate:     [byte/s] Maximum rate for incoming data

     - QoSMinPolicedUnit:   [byte] IP datagrams less than this are
                              counted as being this size
     - QoSMaxDatagramSize:  [byte] Size of biggest datagram which
                              conforms to the traffic specification
2.6  Actions on Exceptions

  Some users of RTFM have requested the ability to mark flows as having
  High Watermarks.  The existence of abnormal service conditions, such
  as non-ending flow, a flow that exceeds a given limit in traffic
  (e.g. a flow that is exhausting the capacity of the line that carries
  it) would cause an ALERT to be sent to the Meter Reader for
  forwarding to the Manager.  Operations Support could define service
  situations in many different environments.  This is an area for
  further discussion on Alert and Trap handling.

3  Extensions to the 'Basic' RTFM Meter

  The Working Group has agreed that the basic RTFM Meter will not be
  altered by the addition of the new attributes of this document.  This
  section describes the extensions needed to implement the new
  attributes.

3.1  Flow table extensions

  The architecture of RTFM has defined the structure of flows, and this
  memo does not change that structure.  The flow table could have
  ancillary tables called "Distribution Tables" and "Trace Tables,"





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  these would contain rows of values and or actions as defined above.
  Each entry in these tables would be marked with the number of its
  corresponding flow in the RTFM flow table.

  Note:  The following section is for the user who is familiar with the
  writing of rule sets for the RTFM Meter.

     In order to identify the data in a Packet Flow Table, the
     attribute name could be pushed into a string at the head of each
     row.  For example, if a table entry has "To Bit Rate" for a
     particular flow, the "ToBitRate" string would be found at the head
     of the row.  (An alternative method would be to code an
     identification value for each extended attribute and push that
     value into the head of the row.)  See section 4.  for an inital
     set of ten extended flow attributes.

3.2  Specifying Distributions in RuleSets

  At first sight it would seem neccessary to add extra features to the
  RTFM Meter architecture to support distributions.  This, however, is
  not neccessarily the case.

  What is actually needed is a way to specify, in a ruleset, the
  distribution parameters.  These include the number of counters, the
  lower and upper bounds of the distribution, whether it is linear or
  logarithmic, and any other details (e.g. the time interval for
  short-term rate attributes).

  Any attribute which is distribution-valued needs to be allocated a
  RuleAttributeNumber value.  These will be chosen so as to extend the
  list already in the RTFM Meter MIB document [RTFM-MIB].

  Since distribution attributes are multi-valued it does not make sense
  to test them.  This means that a PushPkt (or PushPkttoAct) action
  must be executed to add a new value to the distribution.  The old-
  style attributes use the 'mask' field to specify which bits of the
  value are required, but again, this is not the case for
  distributions.  Lastly, the MatchedValue ('value') field of a PushPkt
  rule is never used.  Overall, therefore, the 'mask' and 'value'
  fields in the PushPkt rule are available to specify distribution
  parameters.

  Both these fields are at least six bytes long, the size of a MAC
  address.  All we have to do is specify how these bytes should be
  used!  As a starting point, the following is proposed (bytes are
  numbered left-to-right.





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  Mask bytes:
       1    Transform        1 = linear, 2 = logarithmic
       2    Scale Factor     Power of 10 multiplier for Limits
                                 and Counts
     3-4    Lower Limit      Highest value for first bucket
     5-6    Upper Limit      Highest value for last bucket

  Value bytes:
       1    Buckets          Number of buckets.  Does not include
                                 the 'overflow' bucket
       2    Parameter-1      } Parameter use depends
     3-4    Parameter-2      } on distribution-valued
     5-6    Parameter-3      } attribute

  For example, experiments with NeTraMet have used the following rules:

    FromPacketSize     & 1.0.25!1500 = 60.0!0:   PushPkttoAct, Next;

    ToInterArrivalTime &  2.3.1!1800 = 60.0.0!0: PushPkttoAct, Next;

    FromBitRate        & 2.3.1!10000 = 60.5.0!0: PushPkttoAct, Next;

  In these mask and value fields a dot indicates that the preceding
  number is a one-byte integer, the exclamation marks indicate that the
  preceding number is a two-byte integer, and the last number is two
  bytes wide since this was the width of the preceding field.  (Note
  that this convention follows that for IP addresses - 130.216 means
  130.216.0.0).

  The first rule specifies that a distribution of packet sizes is to be
  built.  It uses an array of 60 buckets, storing values from 1 to 1500
  bytes (i.e. linear steps of 25 bytes each bucket).  Any packets with
  size greater than 1500 will be counted in the 'overflow' bucket,
  hence there are 61 counters for the distribution.

  The second rule specifies an interarrival-time distribution, using a
  logarithmic scale for an array of 60 counters (and an overflow
  bucket) for rates from 1 ms to 1.8 s.  Arrival times are measured in
  microseconds, hence the scale factor of 3 indicates that the limits
  are given in milliseconds.

  The third rule specifies a bit-rate distribution, with the rate being
  calculated every 5 seconds (parameter 1).  A logarithmic array of 60
  counters (and an overflow bucket) are used for rates from 1 kbps to
  10 Mbps.  The scale factor of 3 indicates that the limits are given
  in thousands of bits per second (rates are measured in bps).





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  These distribution parameters will need to be stored in the meter so
  that they are available for building the distribution.  They will
  also need to be read from the meter and saved together with the other
  flow data.

3.3  Reading Distributions

  Since RTFM flows are bi-directional, each distribution-valued
  quantity (e.g. packet size, bit rate, etc.)  will actually need two
  sets of counters, one for packets travelling in each direction.  It
  is tempting to regard these as components of a single 'distribution',
  but in many cases only one of the two directions will be of interest;
  it seems better to keep them in separate distributions.  This is
  similar to the old-style counter-valued attributes such as toOctets
  and fromOctets.

  A distribution should be read by a meter reader as a single,
  structured object.  The components of a distribution object are:

     -  'mask' and 'value' fields from the rule which created the
        distribution

     -  sequence of counters ('buckets' + overflow)

  These can be easily collected into a BER-encoded octet string, and
  would be read and referred to as a 'distribution'.

4  Extensions to the Rules Table, Attribute Numbers

  The Rules Table of "old-style" attributes will be extended for the
  new flow types.  A list of actions, and keywords, such as
  "ToBitRate", "ToPacketSize", etc.  will be developed and used to
  inform an RTFM meter to collect a set of extended values for a
  particular flow (or set of flows).

  Note:  An implementation suggestion.

     Value 65 is used for 'Distributions', which has one bit set for
     each distribution-valued attribute present for the flow, using bit
     0 for attribute 66, bit 1 for attribute 67, etc.

  Here are ten possible distribution-valued attributes numbered
  according to RTFM WG consensus at the 1997 meeting in Munich:

     ToPacketSize(66)         size of PDUs in bytes (i.e. number
     FromPacketSize(67)         of bytes actually transmitted)





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     ToInterarrivalTime(68)   microseconds between successive packets
     FromInterarrivalTime(69)   travelling in the same direction

     ToTurnaroundTime(70)     microseconds between successive packets
     FromTurnaroundTime(71)     travelling in opposite directions

     ToBitRate(72)            short-term flow rate in bits per second
     FromBitRate(73)            Parameter 1 = rate interval in seconds

     ToPDURate(74)            short-term flow rate in PDUs per second
     FromPDURate(75)            Parameter 1 = rate interval in seconds

     (76 .. 97)               other distributions

  It seems reasonable to allocate a further group of numbers for the
  IIS attributes described above:

     QoSService(98)
     QoSStyle(99)
     QoSRate(100)
     QoSSlackTerm(101)
     QoSTokenBucketRate(102)
     QoSTokenBucketSize(103)
     QoSPeakDataRate(104)
     QoSMinPolicedUnit(105)
     QoSMaxPolicedUnit(106)

  The following attributes have also been implemented in NetFlowMet, a
  version of the RTFM traffic meter:

     MeterID(112)      Integer identifying the router producing
                          NetFlow data (needed when NetFlowMet takes
                          data from several routers)
     SourceASN(113)    Autonomous System Number for flow's source
     SourcePrefix(114) CIDR width used by router for determining
                          flow's source network
     DestASN(115)      Autonomous System Number for flow's destination
     DestPrefix(116)   CIDR width used by router for determining
                          flow's destination network

  Some of the above, e.g. SourceASN and DestASN, might sensibly be
  allocated attribute numbers below 64, making them part of the 'base'
  RTFM meter attributes.








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  To support use of the RTFM meter as an 'Edge Device' for implementing
  Differentiated Services, and/or for metering traffic carried via such
  services, one more attribute will be useful:

     DSCodePoint(118)  DS Code Point (6 bits) for packets in this flow

  Since the DS Code Point is a single field within a packet's IP
  header, it is not possible to have both Source- and Dest-CodePoint
  attributes.  Possible uses of DSCodePoint include aggregating flows
  using the same Code Points, and separating flows having the same
  end-point addresses but using different Code Points.

5  Security Considerations

  The attributes considered in this document represent properties of
  traffic flows; they do not present any security issues in themselves.
  The attributes may, however, be used in measuring the behaviour of
  traffic flows, and the collected traffic flow data could be of
  considerable value.  Suitable precautions should be taken to keep
  such data safe.































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6  References

  [C-B-P]     Claffy, K., Braun, H-W, Polyzos, G., "A Parameterizable
              Methodology for Internet Traffic Flow Profiling," IEEE
              Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 13, No.
              8, October 1995.

  [GUAR-QOS]  Shenker, S., Partridge, C. and R. Guerin, "Specification
              of Guaranteed Quality of Service", RFC 2212, September
              1997.

  [IIS-ACCT]  Maiocchi, S: "NeTraMet & NeMaC for IIS Accounting:
              Users' Guide", CEFRIEL, Milan, 5 May 1998.  (See also
              http://www.cefriel.it/ntw)

  [IIS-RSVP]  Wroclawski, J., "The Use of RSVP with IETF Integrated
              Services", RFC 2210, September 1997.

  [IPPM-FRM]  Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J. and  Mathis, M.,
              "Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330, May
              1998.

  [RMON-MIB]  Waldbusser, S., "Remote Network Monitoring Management
              Information Base", RFC 1757, February 1995.

  [RMON2-MIB] Waldbusser, S., "Remote Network Monitoring Management
              Information Base Version 2 using SMIv2", RFC 2021,
              January 1997.

  [RTFM-ARC]  Brownlee, N., Mills, C. and G. Ruth, "Traffic Flow
              Measurement: Architecture", RFC 2722, October 1999.

  [RTFM-MIB]  Brownlee, N., "Traffic Flow Measurement: Meter MIB", RFC
              2720, October 1999.

















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7  Authors' Addresses

  Sig Handelman
  IBM Research Division
  T.J. Watson Research Center
  P.O. Box 704
  Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

  Phone: +1 914 784 7626
  EMail: [email protected]


  Stephen Stibler
  IBM Research Division
  T.J. Watson Research Center
  P.O. Box 704
  Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

  Phone: +1 914 784 7191
  EMail: [email protected]


  Nevil Brownlee
  Information Technology Systems & Services
  The University of Auckland
  Private Bag 92-019
  Auckland, New Zealand

  Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x8941
  EMail: [email protected]


  Greg Ruth
  GTE Internteworking
  3 Van de Graaff Drive
  P.O. Box 3073
  Burlington, MA 01803, U.S.A.

  Phone: +1 781 262 4831
  EMail: [email protected]











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RFC 2724                  RTFM: New Attributes              October 1999


8.  Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

  Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
  Internet Society.



















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