Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information
RFC 5101

Network Working Group                                     B. Claise, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5101                           Cisco Systems, Inc.
Category: Standards Track                                   January 2008

   Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol
            for the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document specifies the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
   protocol that serves for transmitting IP Traffic Flow information
   over the network.  In order to transmit IP Traffic Flow information
   from an Exporting Process to an information Collecting Process, a
   common representation of flow data and a standard means of
   communicating them is required.  This document describes how the
   IPFIX Data and Template Records are carried over a number of
   transport protocols from an IPFIX Exporting Process to an IPFIX
   Collecting Process.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. IPFIX Documents Overview ...................................4
   2. Terminology .....................................................4
      2.1. Terminology Summary Table ..................................9
   3. IPFIX Message Format ...........................................10
      3.1. Message Header Format .....................................11
      3.2. Field Specifier Format ....................................13
      3.3. Set and Set Header Format .................................14
           3.3.1. Set Format .........................................14
           3.3.2. Set Header Format ..................................15
      3.4. Record Format .............................................16
           3.4.1. Template Record Format .............................16
           3.4.2. Options Template Record Format .....................18
                  3.4.2.1. Scope .....................................19
                  3.4.2.2. Options Template Record Format ............20
           3.4.3. Data Record Format .................................22
   4. Specific Reporting Requirements ................................23
      4.1. The Metering Process Statistics Option Template ...........23

Claise, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 5101              IPFIX Protocol Specification          January 2008

      4.2. The Metering Process Reliability Statistics Option
           Template ..................................................24
      4.3. The Exporting Process Reliability Statistics
           Option Template ...........................................25
      4.4. The Flow Keys Option Template .............................26
   5. IPFIX Message Header "Export Time" and Flow Record Time ........27
   6. Linkage with the Information Model .............................28
      6.1. Encoding of IPFIX Data Types ..............................28
           6.1.1. Integral Data Types ................................28
           6.1.2. Address Types ......................................28
           6.1.3. float32 ............................................28
           6.1.4. float64 ............................................28
           6.1.5. boolean ............................................28
           6.1.6. string and octetarray ..............................28
           6.1.7. dateTimeSeconds ....................................29
           6.1.8. dateTimeMilliseconds ...............................29
           6.1.9. dateTimeMicroseconds ...............................29
           6.1.10.dateTimeNanoseconds.................................29
      6.2. Reduced Size Encoding of Integer and Float Types ..........29
   7. Variable-Length Information Element ............................30
   8. Template Management ............................................31
   9. The Collecting Process's Side ..................................34
   10. Transport Protocol ............................................36
      10.1. Transport Compliance and Transport Usage .................36
      10.2. SCTP .....................................................37
           10.2.1. Congestion Avoidance ..............................37
           10.2.2. Reliability .......................................37
           10.2.3. MTU ...............................................37
           10.2.4. Exporting Process .................................38