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Textual Representation of IPFIX Abstract Data Types
draft-ietf-ipfix-text-adt-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7373.
Author Brian Trammell
Last updated 2014-01-20
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draft-ietf-ipfix-text-adt-00
IPFIX Working Group                                          B. Trammell
Internet-Draft                                                ETH Zurich
Intended status: Informational                          January 20, 2014
Expires: July 24, 2014

          Textual Representation of IPFIX Abstract Data Types
                    draft-ietf-ipfix-text-adt-00.txt

Abstract

   This document defines UTF-8 representations for IPFIX abstract data
   types, to support interoperable usage of the IPFIX Information
   Elements with protocols based on textual encodings.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on July 24, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Identifying Information Elements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Data Type Encodings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     4.1.  octetArray  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     4.2.  unsigned8, unsigned16, unsigned32, and unsigned64 . . . .   4
     4.3.  signed8, signed16, signed32, and signed64 . . . . . . . .   4
     4.4.  float32 and float64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.5.  boolean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.6.  macAddress  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.7.  string  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.8.  dateTime* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.9.  ipv4Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.10. ipv6Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.11. basicList, subTemplateList, and subTemplateMultiList  . .   8
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   The IPFIX Information Model, as defined by the IANA IPFIX Information
   Element Registry [iana-ipfix-assignments], provides a rich set of
   Information Elements for description of information about network
   entities and network traffic data, and abstract data types for these
   Information Elements.  The IPFIX Protocol Specification [RFC7011], in
   turn, defines a big-endian binary encoding for these abstract data
   types suitable for use with the IPFIX Protocol.

   However, present and future operations and management protocols and
   applications may use textual encodings, and generic framing and
   structure as in JSON or XML.  A definition of canonical textual
   encodings for the IPFIX abstract data types would allow this set of
   Information Elements to be used for such applications, and for these
   applications to interoperate with IPFIX applications at the
   Information Element definition level.

   Note that templating or other mechanisms for data description for
   such applications and protocols are application specific, and
   therefore out of scope for this document: only Information Element
   identification and data value representation are defined here.

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2.  Terminology

   Capitalized terms defined in the IPFIX Protocol Specification
   [RFC7011] and the IPFIX Information Model [RFC7012] are used in this
   document as defined in those documents.  In addition, this document
   defines the following terminology for its own use:

   Enclosing Context
      Textual representation of IPFIX data values is applied to use the
      IPFIX Information Model within some existing textual format (e.g.
      XML, JSON).  This outer format is referred to as the Enclosing
      Context within this document.  Enclosing Contexts define escaping
      and quoting rules for represented data values.

3.  Identifying Information Elements

   The IPFIX Information Element Registry [iana-ipfix-assignments]
   defines a set of Information Elements and numbered by Information
   Element Identifiers, and named for human-readability.  These
   Information Element Identifiers are meant for use with the IPFIX
   protocol, and have little meaning when applying the IPFIX Information
   Element Registry to textual representations.

   Instead, applications using textual representations of Information
   Elements SHOULD use Information Element names to identify them; see
   Appendix A for examples illustrating this principle.

4.  Data Type Encodings

   Each subsection of this section defines a textual encoding for the
   abstract data types defined in [RFC7012].  This section uses ABNF
   [RFC5234], including the Core Rules in Appendix B, to describe the
   format of textual representations of IPFIX abstract data types.

4.1.  octetArray

   If the Enclosing Context defines a representation for binary objects,
   that representation SHOULD be used.

   Otherwise, since the goal of textual representation of Information
   Elements is readability over compactness, the values of Information
   Elements of the octetArray data type are represented as a string of
   pairs of hexadecimal digits, one pair per byte, in the order the
   bytes would appear on the wire were the octetArray encoded directly
   in IPFIX per [RFC7011].  Whitespace may occur between any pair of
   digits to assist in human readability of the string, but is not
   necessary, and must be disregarded by any process reading the string.
   In ABNF:

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   hex-octet = 2HEXDIGIT

   octetarray = 1* (hex-octet [WSP])

4.2.  unsigned8, unsigned16, unsigned32, and unsigned64

   If the Enclosing Context defines a representation for unsigned
   integers, that representation SHOULD be used.

   In the special case that the unsigned Information Element has
   identifier semantics, and refers to a set of codepoints, either in an
   external registry, a sub-registry, or directly in the description of
   the Information Element, then the name or short description for that
   codepoint MAY be used to improve readability.

   Otherwise, the values of Information Elements of an unsigned integer
   type may be represented either as unprefixed base-10 (decimal)
   strings, or as base-16 (hexadecimal) strings prefixed by '0x'; in
   ABNF:

   unsigned = 1*DIGIT / '0x' 1*HEXDIG

   Leading zeroes are allowed in either encoding, and do not signify
   base-8 (octal) encoding.

   The encoded value must be in range for the corresponding abstract
   data type or Information Element.  Out of range values should be
   interpreted as clipped to the implicit range for the Information
   Element as defined by the abstract data type, or to the explicit
   range of the Information Element if defined.  Minimum and maximum
   values for abstract data types are shown in Table 1 below.

              +------------+---------+----------------------+
              |       type | minimum |              maximum |
              +------------+---------+----------------------+
              |  unsigned8 |       0 |                  255 |
              | unsigned16 |       0 |                65536 |
              | unsigned32 |       0 |           4294967295 |
              | unsigned64 |       0 | 18446744073709551615 |
              +------------+---------+----------------------+

             Table 1: Ranges for unsigned abstract data types

4.3.  signed8, signed16, signed32, and signed64

   If the Enclosing Context defines a representation for signed
   integers, that representation SHOULD be used.

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   Otherwise, the values of Information Elements of signed integer types
   should be represented as optionally-prefixed base-10 (decimal)
   strings.  In ABNF:

   sign = "+" / "-"

   signed = [sign] 1*DIGIT

   If the sign is omitted, it is assumed to be positive.  Leading zeroes
   are allowed, and do not signify base-8 (octal) encoding.

   The encoded value must be in range for the corresponding abstract
   data type or Information Element.  Out of range values should be
   interpreted as clipped to the implicit range for the Information
   Element as defined by the abstract data type, or to the explicit
   range of the Information Element if defined.  Minimum and maximum
   values for abstract data types are shown in Table 2 below.

        +----------+----------------------+----------------------+
        |     type |              minimum |              maximum |
        +----------+----------------------+----------------------+
        |  signed8 |                 -128 |                 +127 |
        | signed16 |               -32768 |               +32767 |
        | signed32 |          -2147483648 |          +2147483647 |
        | signed64 | -9223372036854775808 | +9223372036854775807 |
        +----------+----------------------+----------------------+

              Table 2: Ranges for signed abstract data types

4.4.  float32 and float64

   If the Enclosing Context defines a representation for floating point
   numbers, that representation SHOULD be used.

   Otherwise, the values of Information Elements of float32 or float64
   types are represented as an optionally sign-prefixed, optionally
   base-10 exponent-suffixed, floating point decimal number.  In ABNF:

   sign = "+" / "-"

   exponent = 'e' 1*3DIGIT

   right-decimal = '.' 0*DIGIT

   mantissa = 1*DIGIT [right-decimal]

   float = [sign] mantissa [exponent]

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   The expressed value is ( mantissa * 10 ^ exponent ).  If the sign is
   omitted, it is assumed to be positive.  If the exponent is omitted,
   it is assumed to be zero.  Leading zeroes may appear in the mantissa
   and/or the exponent.

   Minimum and maximum values for abstract data types are shown in
   Table 3below.

               +---------+----------------+----------------+
               |    type | minimum abs(x) | maximum abs(x) |
               +---------+----------------+----------------+
               | float32 |      5.877e-39 |       3.403e38 |
               | float64 |    1.1125e-308 |     +1.798e308 |
               +---------+----------------+----------------+

          Table 3: Ranges for floating-point abstract data types

4.5.  boolean

   If the Enclosing Context defines a representation for boolean values,
   that representation SHOULD be used.

   Otherwise, a true boolean value should be represented with the
   literal string 1, and a false boolean value with the literal string
   0.  In ABNF:

   boolean-yes = "1"

   boolean-no = "0"

   boolean = boolean-yes / boolean-no

4.6.  macAddress

   MAC addresses are represented as IEEE 802 MAC-48 addresses,
   hexadecimal bytes, most significant byte first, separated by colons.
   In ABNF, using the hex-octet production from Section 4.1:

   macaddress = hex-octet 5( ":" hex-octet )

4.7.  string

   As Information Elements of the string type are simply UTF-8 encoded
   strings, they are represented directly, subject to the escaping and
   encoding rules of the Enclosing Context.  If the Enclosing Context
   cannot natively represent UTF-8 characters, the escaping facility
   provided by the Enclosing Context must be used for non-representable
   characters.  Additionally, strings containing characters reserved in

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   the Enclosing Context (e.g. markup characters, quotes) must be
   escaped or quoted according to the rules of the Enclosing Context.

4.8.  dateTime*

   Timestamp abstract data types are represented generally as in
   [RFC3339], with two important differences.  First, all IPFIX
   timestamps are expressed in terms of UTC, so textual representations
   of these Information Elements are explictly in UTC as well.  Time
   zone offsets are therefore not required or supported.  Second, there
   are four timestamp abstract data types, separated by the precision
   which they can express.  Fractional seconds must be omitted in
   dateTimeSeconds, expressed in milliseconds in dateTimeMilliseconds,
   and so on.

   In ABNF, taken from [RFC3339] and modified:

   date-fullyear   = 4DIGIT
   date-month      = 2DIGIT  ; 01-12
   date-mday       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31
   time-hour       = 2DIGIT  ; 00-23
   time-minute     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-59
   time-second     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60
   time-msec       = "." 3*DIGIT
   time-usec       = "." 6*DIGIT
   time-nsec       = "." 9*DIGIT
   partial-time    = time-hour ":" time-minute ":" time-second

   datetimeseconds      = full-date "T" partial-time
   datetimemilliseconds = full-date "T" partial-time "." time-msec
   datetimemicroseconds = full-date "T" partial-time "." time-usec
   datetimenanoseconds  = full-date "T" partial-time "." time-nsec

4.9.  ipv4Address

   IP version 4 addresses are represented in dotted-quad format, most-
   significant-byte first, as it would in a Uniform Resource Identifier
   [RFC3986]; the ABNF for an IPv4 address is taken from [RFC3986] and
   reproduced below:

   dec-octet   = DIGIT                 ; 0-9
               / %x31-39 DIGIT         ; 10-99
               / "1" 2DIGIT            ; 100-199
               / "2" %x30-34 DIGIT     ; 200-249
               / "25" %x30-35          ; 250-255

   ipv4address = dec-octet 3("." dec-octet)

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4.10.  ipv6Address

   IP version 6 addresses are represented as in section 2.2 of
   [RFC4291], as updated by section 4 of [RFC5952].  The ABNF for an
   IPv6 address is taken from [RFC3986] and reproduced below:

   ls32        = ( h16 ":" h16 ) / IPv4address
               ; least-significant 32 bits of address
   h16         = 1*4HEXDIG
               ; 16 bits of address represented in hexadecimal
               ; zeroes to suppressed as in RFC 5952

   ipv6address =                            6( h16 ":" ) ls32
               /                       "::" 5( h16 ":" ) ls32
               / [               h16 ] "::" 4( h16 ":" ) ls32
               / [ *1( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::" 3( h16 ":" ) ls32
               / [ *2( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::" 2( h16 ":" ) ls32
               / [ *3( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::"    h16 ":"   ls32
               / [ *4( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::"              ls32
               / [ *5( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::"              h16
               / [ *6( h16 ":" ) h16 ] "::"

4.11.  basicList, subTemplateList, and subTemplateMultiList

   These abstract data types, defined for IPFIX Structured Data
   [RFC6313], do not represent actual data types; they are instead
   designed to provide a mechanism by which complex structure can be
   represented in IPFIX below the template level.  It is assumed that
   protocols using textual Information Element representation will
   provide their own structure.  Therefore, Information Elements of
   these Data Types MUST NOT be used in textual representations.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document does not present any additional security measures
   beyond those presented by [RFC7011].

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no considerations for IANA.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC3339]  Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the
              Internet: Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.

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   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC
              3986, January 2005.

   [RFC4291]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
              Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

   [RFC5952]  Kawamura, S. and M. Kawashima, "A Recommendation for IPv6
              Address Text Representation", RFC 5952, August 2010.

   [RFC7011]  Claise, B., Trammell, B., and P. Aitken, "Specification of
              the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the
              Exchange of Flow Information", STD 77, RFC 7011, September
              2013.

   [iana-ipfix-assignments]
              Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, , "IP Flow
              Information Export Information Elements
              (http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipfix/ipfix.xml)",
              November 2012.

7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC6313]  Claise, B., Dhandapani, G., Aitken, P., and S. Yates,
              "Export of Structured Data in IP Flow Information Export
              (IPFIX)", RFC 6313, July 2011.

   [RFC7012]  Claise, B. and B. Trammell, "Information Model for IP Flow
              Information Export (IPFIX)", RFC 7012, September 2013.

   [RFC7013]  Trammell, B. and B. Claise, "Guidelines for Authors and
              Reviewers of IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
              Information Elements", BCP 184, RFC 7013, September 2013.

Appendix A.  Example

   In this section, we examine an IPFIX Template and a Data Record
   defined by that Template, and show how that Data Record would be
   represented in JSON according to the specification in this document.
   Note that this is specifically NOT a recommendation for a particular
   representation, merely an illustration of the encodings in this
   document.

   Figure 1 shows a Template in IESpec format as defined in section 10.1
   of [RFC7013].  A Message containing this Template and a Data Record

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   is shown in Figure 2, and a corresponding JSON Object using the text
   format defined in this document is shown in Figure 3.

         flowStartMilliseconds(152)<dateTimeMilliseconds>[8]
         flowEndMilliseconds(153)<dateTimeMilliseconds>[8]
         octetDeltaCount(1)<unsigned64>[4]
         packetDeltaCount(2)<unsigned64>[4]
         sourceIPv6Address(27)<ipv4Address>[4]{key}
         destinationIPv6Address(28)<ipv4Address>[4]{key}
         sourceTransportPort(7)<unsigned16>[2]{key}
         destinationTransportPort(11)<unsigned16>[2]{key}
         protocolIdentifier(4)<unsigned8>[1]{key}
         tcpControlBits(6)<unsigned8>[1]
         flowEndReason(136)<unsigned8>[1]

                  Figure 1: Sample flow template (IPFIX)

             1         2         3         4         5         6
   0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  | 0x000a        | length 135    | export time 1352140263        | msg
  | sequence 0                    | domain 1                      | hdr
  | SetID 2       | length 52     | tid 256       | fields 11     | tmpl
  | IE 152        | length 8      | IE 153        | length 8      | set
  | IE 1          | length 4      | IE 2          | length 4      |
  | IE 27         | length 16     | IE 28         | length 16     |
  | IE 7          | length 2      | IE 11         | length 2      |
  | IE 4          | length 1      | IE 6          | length 1      |
  | IE 136        | length 1      | SetID 256     | length 83     | data
  | start time                                     1352140261135  | set
  | end time                                       1352140262880  |
  | octets                195383  | packets                   88  |
  | sip6                                                          |
  |                       2001:0db8:000c:1337:0000:0000:0000:0002 |
  | dip6                                                          |
  |                       2001:0db8:000c:1337:0000:0000:0000:0003 |
  | sp        80  | dp     32991  | prt 6 | tcp 19| fe 3  |
  +-------------------------------------------------------+

              Figure 2: IPFIX message containing sample flow

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           {
               "flowStartMilliseconds": "2012-11-05T18:31:01.135",
               "flowEndMilliseconds": "2012-11-05T18:31:02.880",
               "octetDeltaCount": 195383,
               "packetDeltaCount": 88,
               "sourceIPv6Address": "2001:db8:c:1337::2",
               "destinationIPv6Address": "2001:db8:c:1337::3",
               "sourceTransportPort": 80,
               "destinationTransportPort": 32991,
               "protocolIdentifier": "tcp",
               "tcpControlBits": 19,
               "flowEndReason": 3
           }

               Figure 3: JSON object containing sample flow

Author's Address

   Brian Trammell
   Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
   Gloriastrasse 35
   8092 Zurich
   Switzerland

   Phone: +41 44 632 70 13
   Email: trammell@tik.ee.ethz.ch

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