Textual Representation of IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Abstract Data Types
RFC 7373

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
• History

• Versions
• 00
• 01
• 02
• 03
• 04
• 05
• 06
• 07
• 08
• 09
• 10

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       B. Trammell
Request for Comments: 7373                                    ETH Zurich
Category: Standards Track                                 September 2014
ISSN: 2070-1721

      Textual Representation of IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
                          Abstract Data Types

Abstract

   This document defines UTF-8 representations for IP Flow Information
   Export (IPFIX) abstract data types (ADTs) to support interoperable
   usage of the IPFIX Information Elements with protocols based on
   textual encodings.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7373.

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.

Trammell                     Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7373                    IPFIX Text Types              September 2014

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Identifying Information Elements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Data Type Encodings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     4.1.  octetArray  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  unsigned8, unsigned16, unsigned32, and unsigned64 . . . .   4
     4.3.  signed8, signed16, signed32, and signed64 . . . . . . . .   5
     4.4.  float32 and float64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.5.  boolean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.6.  macAddress  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.7.  string  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.8.  The dateTime ADTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.9.  ipv4Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.10. ipv6Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.11. basicList, subTemplateList, and subTemplateMultiList  . .   9
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Appendix A.  Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.  Introduction

   The IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Information Model [RFC7012]
   provides a set of abstract data types (ADTs) for the IANA "IPFIX
   Information Elements" registry [IANA-IPFIX], which contains 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 [RFC7159] 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 used for data description
   for such applications and protocols are application specific and,
   therefore, out of scope for this document: only Information Element
   identification and value representation are defined here.

Trammell                     Standards Track                    [Page 2]