IP Flow Information Accounting and Export Benchmarking Methodology
RFC 6645
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) J. Novak
Request for Comments: 6645 Cisco Systems, Inc.
Category: Informational July 2012
ISSN: 2070-1721
IP Flow Information Accounting and
Export Benchmarking Methodology
Abstract
This document provides a methodology and framework for quantifying
the performance impact of the monitoring of IP flows on a network
device and the export of this information to a Collector. It
identifies the rate at which the IP flows are created, expired, and
successfully exported as a new performance metric in combination with
traditional throughput. The metric is only applicable to the devices
compliant with RFC 5470, "Architecture for IP Flow Information
Export". The methodology quantifies the impact of the IP flow
monitoring process on the network equipment.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
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). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see 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/rfc6645.
Novak Informational [Page 1]
RFC 6645 Flow Monitoring Benchmarking July 2012
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 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
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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.
Novak Informational [Page 2]
RFC 6645 Flow Monitoring Benchmarking July 2012
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................4
2. Terminology .....................................................5
2.1. Existing Terminology .......................................5
2.2. New Terminology ............................................6
3. Flow Monitoring Performance Benchmark ...........................8
3.1. Definition .................................................8
3.2. Device Applicability .......................................8
3.3. Measurement Concept ........................................8
3.4. The Measurement Procedure Overview .........................9
4. Measurement Setup ..............................................11
4.1. Measurement Topology ......................................11
4.2. Baseline DUT Setup ........................................13
4.3. Flow Monitoring Configuration .............................13
4.4. Collector .................................................19
4.5. Sampling ..................................................19
4.6. Frame Formats .............................................19
4.7. Frame Sizes ...............................................20
4.8. Flow Export Data Packet Sizes .............................20
4.9. Illustrative Test Setup Examples ..........................20
5. Flow Monitoring Throughput Measurement Methodology .............22
5.1. Flow Monitoring Configuration .............................23
5.2. Traffic Configuration .....................................24
5.3. Cache Population ..........................................25
5.4. Measurement Time Interval .................................25
5.5. Flow Export Rate Measurement ..............................26
5.6. The Measurement Procedure .................................27
6. RFC 2544 Measurements ..........................................28
6.1. Flow Monitoring Configuration..............................28
6.2. Measurements with the Flow Monitoring Throughput Setup ....29
6.3. Measurements with Fixed Flow Export Rate...................29
7. Flow Monitoring Accuracy .......................................30
8. Evaluating Flow Monitoring Applicability .......................31
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