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IP Flow Information Export
charter-ietf-ipfix-07

Document Charter IP Flow Information Export WG (ipfix)
Title IP Flow Information Export
Last updated 2001-09-27
State Approved
WG State Concluded
IESG Responsible AD Benoît Claise
Charter edit AD (None)
Send notices to (None)

charter-ietf-ipfix-07

The IPFIX working group has specified the information model (to describe
IP flows) and the IPFIX protocol (to transfer IP flow data from IPFIX
exporters to collectors). Several implementers have already built
applications using the IPFIX protocol. As a result of a series of IPFIX
interoperability testing events the WG has produced guidelines for IPFIX
implementation and testing as well as recommendations for handling
special cases such as bidirectional flow reporting and reducing
redundancy in flow records.

The IPFIX WG has developed a mediation framework, that defines IPFIX
mediators for processing flow records for various purposes including
aggregation, anonymization, etc. For configuring IPFIX devices, a YANG
module has been developed.

  1. Having a solid standardized base for IPFIX deployment and operation
    and several existing implementations, the IPFIX WG will revisit the
    IPFIX protocol specifications (RFC 5101) and the IPFIX information
    element specification (RFC 5102) in order to in order to advance them to
    the next stage on the standards track.

All following items 2.-7. will be in line with the revised versions of
the IPFIX protocol specifications and the IPFIX information model.

  1. In order to provide guidelines to developers and reviewers (including
    IE doctors) of new IPFIX information elements and for better defining
    the process of registering new information elements at IANA the IPFIX WG
    will create an information element developers and reviewers guideline
    document.

  2. The export of IPFIX flow records from IPFIX mediators introduces a
    set of potential issues at the protocol level, such as the loss of
    information on the original exporter, loss of base time information,
    loss of original options template information, etc. The IPFIX WG will
    define a set of specifications for applying the IPFIX protocol at
    mediators, including new specifications for protocol issues not
    envisioned by the IPFIX protocol itself.

4.In order to support the aggregation of flow records at IPFIX mediators
the IPFIX WG will define how to export aggregated flow information using
IPFIX. An aggregated flow is essentially an IPFIX flow representing
packets from multiple original Flows sharing some set of common
properties.

  1. The IPFIX WG will investigate the use of the IPFIX protocol for
    exporting MIB objects, avoiding the need to define new IPFIX information
    elements for existing management information base objects that are
    already fully specified. This method requires the specification of new
    template set and options template sets to allow the export of MIB
    objects along with IPFIX information elements.

  2. The IPFIX MIB module (RFC 5815) defined a way to register packet
    selector functions at IANA. The WG agreed that another method would be
    preferable that requires a minor change of RFC 5815. The IPFIX WG will
    produce a new version of RFC 5815 with small modifications of the IANA
    actions and DESCRIPTION clauses in the MIB modules.

  3. Operational experiences showed that it would be useful to define
    several new information elements for data link monitoring covering frame
    size, type, sections of frames, and VLAN information. The IPFIX WG will
    create a document defining these new information elements.