Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-rtfm-new-traffic-flow-06.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 10:20:52 -0400

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the Realtime Traffic Flow Measurement Working Group 
of the IETF.

	Title		: RTFM Working Group - New Attributes for Traffic 
                          Flow Measurement
	Author(s)	: S. Handelman, N. Brownlee, G. Ruth, S. Stibler
	Filename	: draft-ietf-rtfm-new-traffic-flow-06.txt
	Pages		: 15
	Date		: 05-Oct-98
	
   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 [1].
   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 draft will be written to define MIB structures for the new
   attributes.
 
   This draft 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 the timings altered. A meter
   at the client's location would record different attributes for the
   same flow.

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