IP Flow Information Export (ipfix)

Last Modified: 2008-03-20

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/ipfix

Chair(s):

  • Nevil Brownlee <n.brownlee@auckland.ac.nz>

  • Juergen Quittek <quittek@netlab.nec.de>

    Operations and Management Area Director(s):

  • Dan Romascanu <dromasca@avaya.com>
  • Ronald Bonica <rbonica@juniper.net>

    Operations and Management Area Advisor:

  • Dan Romascanu <dromasca@avaya.com>

    Mailing Lists:

    General Discussion: ipfix@ietf.org
    To Subscribe: http://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipfix
    Archive: http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ipfix/current/index.html

    Description of Working Group:

    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.

    Practical experiences with IPFIX implementations exposed new
    requirements for the IPFIX protocol that so far have not been
    addressed by the WG. The major current goal of the WG is developing
    solutions that meet the new requirements without modifying the core
    IPFIX protocol specifications.

    1. The IPFIX WG has developed a MIB module for monitoring IPFIX
    implementations. Means for configuring these devices have not been
    standardized yet. The WG will develop an XML-based configuration data
    model that can be used for configuring IPFIX devices and for storing,
    modifying and managing IPFIX configurations parameter sets. This work
    will be performed in close collaboration with the NETCONF WG.

    2. There is a need for storing measured flow information and for
    exchanging this information between different systems and
    organizations. The WG will develop a common IPFIX file format for
    storing flow data in order to facilitate interoperability and
    reusability among a wide variety of flow storage, processing, and
    analysis tools. It will be a flat-file format using binary encodings
    that are based on the IPFIX message format.

    3. When dealing with enterprise-specific information elements in IPFIX
    flow records, it often occurs that the receiver of the record does not
    know the definition of the information element. For processing such
    information elements it would be desirable for the receiver to know at
    least the data types of the enterprise-specific information elements.
    The WG will develop an extension to IPFIX that provides means for the
    encoding of IPFIX data type information within an IPFIX Message
    stream.

    4. Another requirement resulting from practical use of IPFIX is
    reporting IPFIX template records and corresponding data records within
    the same SCTP stream. The IPFIX WG will develop guidelines for this
    use case.

    5. First applications of IPFIX at large operator networks showed the
    need for mediation of flow information, for example, for aggregating
    huge amounts of flow data and for anomymization of flow information.
    The IPFIX WG will investigate this issue and produce a problem
    statement and a framework for IPFIX flow mediation.

    Goals and Milestones:

    Done  Submit Revised Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Requirements
    Done  Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Architecture
    Done  Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Data Model
    Done  Submit Internet-Draft on IPFIX Protocol Evaluation Report
    Done  Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Applicability Statement
    Done  Select IPFIX protocol, revise Architecture and Data Model drafts
    Done  Submit IPFX-REQUIREMENTS to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFIX Protocol Evaluation Report to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFX-ARCHITECTURE to IESG for publication as Proposed Standard RFC
    Done  Submit IPFX-INFO_MODEL to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFX-APPLICABILITY to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFX-PROTOCOL to IESG for publication as Proposed Standard RFC
    Done  Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX Implementation Guidelines
    Done  Publish Internet Draft on Reducing Redundancy in IPFIX data transfer
    Done  Publish Internet Draft on Handling IPFIX Bidirectional Flows
    Done  Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX Testing
    Done  Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX MIB
    Done  Submit IPFIX Implementation Guidelines draft to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFIX Reducing Redundancy draft to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFIX Testing draft to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Done  Submit IPFIX Biflows draft to IESG for publication as Standards Track RFC
    Done  Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Type Information Export
    Dec 2007  Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Configuration Data Model
    Dec 2007  Publish Internet draft on Single SCTP Stream Reporting
    Done  Publish Internet draft on IPFIX File Format
    Jan 2008  Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Mediation Problem Statement
    Jan 2008  Submit File Format draft to IESG for publication as Standards track RFC
    Mar 2008  Submit IPFIX MIB draft to IESG for publication as Standards track RFC
    Jun 2008  Submit Type Export draft to IESG for publication as Standards track RFC
    Jun 2008  Submit Single SCTP Stream draft to IESG for publication as Informational RFC
    Oct 2008  Submit Configuration Data Model draft to IESG for publication as Standards track RFC
    Oct 2008  Submit Mediation Problem draft to IESG for publication as Informational RFC

    Internet-Drafts:

    Architecture for IP Flow Information Export (66507 bytes)
    IPFIX Applicability (76478 bytes)
    IPFIX Implementation Guidelines (85005 bytes)
    Reducing Redundancy in IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) and Packet Sampling (PSAMP) Reports (76733 bytes)
    Guidelines for IP Flow Information eXport (IPFIX) Testing (79850 bytes)
    Definitions of Managed Objects for IP Flow Information Export (89069 bytes)
    An IPFIX-Based File Format (120625 bytes)
    Exporting Type Information for IPFIX Information Elements (41378 bytes)

    Request For Comments:

    Requirements for IP Flow Information Export (RFC 3917) (81615 bytes)
    Evaluation of Candidate Protocols for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) (RFC 3955) (55143 bytes)
    Bidirectional Flow Export using IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) (RFC 5103) (53534 bytes)
    Information Model for IP Flow Information Export (RFC 5102) (335617 bytes)
    Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information (RFC 5101) (147196 bytes)
    IETF Secretariat - Please send questions, comments, and/or suggestions to ietf-web@ietf.org.

    Return to working group directory.

    Return to IETF home page.