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rfc:rfc2721

Network Working Group N. Brownlee Request for Comments: 2721 The University of Auckland Category: Informational October 1999

                   RTFM: Applicability Statement

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document provides an overview covering all aspects of Realtime
 Traffic Flow Measurement, including its area of applicability and its
 limitations.

Table of Contents

 1  The RTFM Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
 2  Brief Technical Specification (TS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
 3  Applicability Statement (AS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
 4  Limitations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
 5  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
 6  Policy Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
 7  Soundness  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
 8  Appendix A: WG Report on the Meter MIB . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
 9  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
 10 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
 11 Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Brownlee Informational [Page 1] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

1 The RTFM Documents

 The RTFM Traffic Measurement System has been developed by the
 Realtime Traffic Flow Measurement Working Group.  It is described in
 six other documents, as follows:
 [ACT-BKG] Internet Accounting: Background             (Informational)
    Sets out the requirements for a usage reporting system for network
    traffic.  Sketches out the RTFM Architecture (meters, meter
    readers and managers) allowing for multiple meters and meter
    readers, with asynchronous reading from the meters.  Proposes
    methods of classifying traffic flows, the need for flows to be
    bi-directional (with separate sets of counters for each direction)
    and the need for each packet to be counted in a single flow (the '
    count in one bucket' principle).
 [RTFM-ARC] RTFM Architecture                          (Informational)
    Defines the RTFM Architecture, giving descriptions of each
    component.  Explains how traffic flows are viewed as logical
    entities described in terms of their address-attribute values, so
    that each is defined by the attributes of its end-points.  Gives a
    detailed description of the RTFM traffic meter, with full details
    of how flows are stored in the meter's flow table, and how packets
    are matched in accordance with rules stored in a ruleset.
 [RTFM-MIB] RTFM Meter MIB                         (Proposed Standard)
    Describes the SNMP Management Information Base for an RTFM meter,
    including its flow table, rule table (storing the meter's
    rulesets) and the control tables used for managing a meter and
    reading flow data from it.
 [RTFM-SRL] SRL: A Language for Describing Traffic     (Informational)
            Flows and Specifying Actions for Flow Groups
    An RTFM ruleset is an array of rules, used by the meter to decide
    which flows are of interest, which end-point is the flow source,
    and how much detail (i.e. what attribute values) must be saved for
    each flow.  SRL is a high-level language providing a clear,
    logical way to write rulesets.  It should also be useful for other
    applications which select flows and perform actions upon them,
    e.g. packet-marking gateways, RSVP policy agents, etc.

Brownlee Informational [Page 2] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 [RTFM-NEW] RTFM New Attributes                         (Experimental)
    There has been considerable interest from users in extending the
    RTFM Architecture so as to allow a meter to report on an increased
    number of flow-related measures.  This RFC documents work on
    specifying such measures (the 'new' attributes) and reports on
    experience of implementing them.
 [RTFM-NTM] RTFM: Experiences with NeTraMet            (Informational)
    NeTraMet is a free software implementation of the RTFM
    Architecture which has been available since 1993.  This RFC
    records RTFM implementation experience gained with NeTraMet up to
    late 1996.  One particularly important result is the realisation
    that groups of rules which test the same attribute using the same
    mask can be implemented as a single hashed comparison, allowing
    the meter to rapidly determine whether a packet belongs to one of
    a large number of networks.

2 Brief Technical Specification (TS)

 RTFM provides for the measurement of network traffic 'flows', i.e.
  1. a method of specifying traffic flows within a network
  2. a hierarchy of devices (meters, meter readers, managers) for

measuring the specified flows

  1. a mechanism for configuring meters and meter readers, and for

collecting the flow data from remote meters

 RTFM provides high time resolution for flow first- and last-packet
 times.  Counters for long-duration flows may be read at intervals
 determined by a manager.  The RTFM Meter is designed so as to do as
 much data reduction work as possible, which minimizes the amount of
 data to be read and the amount of processing needed to produce useful
 reports from it.
 RTFM flow data can be used for a wide range of purposes, such as
 usage accounting, long-term recording of network usage (classified by
 IP address attributes) and real-time analysis of traffic flows at
 remote metering points.

3 Applicability Statement (AS)

 To use RTFM for collecting network traffic information one must first
 consider where in the network traffic flows are to be measured.  Once
 that is decided, an RTFM Meter must be installed at each chosen
 measurement point.

Brownlee Informational [Page 3] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 At least one Meter Reader is needed to collect the measured data from
 the meters, and a single Manager is needed to control the meters and
 meter readers.
 RTFM Meters may be single- or multi-user hosts running a meter
 program (one such program is available as free software, a second is
 under development at IBM Research).  Alternatively, meters could be
 run as firmware in switches or routers.  A hybrid approach in which
 an RTFM meter takes raw traffic data from a router provides another
 useful implementation path.
 RTFM Managers are programs running on a host, communicating with
 meters and meter readers via the network.  For this purpose meters
 are SNMP agents implementing the RTFM Meter MIB, and managers are
 SNMP clients using the Meter MIB to store and access the flow data.

4 Limitations

 RTFM is designed to measure traffic flows for traffic passing a point
 in a network.  If packets for a flow pass the metering point in both
 directions the meter will match them up, providing counters for each
 direction.  If packets only pass in one direction the meter can only
 provide counts for that direction.
 Users of RTFM should note that installing meters, meter readers and
 managers merely provides one with the capability to collect flow
 data.  Further installation work will be needed to develop
 configuration files (RTFM rulesets) for each meter, data processing
 applications to analyse the flow data, and various scripts, cron
 jobs, etc.  so as to create a useful production-quality measurement
 system which suits a user's particular needs.
 One of the strengths of RTFM is its ability to collect flow data at
 whatever level of detail (or 'granularity') is required.  It can be
 tempting to simply collect 'all possible data', but there are severe
 resource constraints.  If one tries to save the complete address-
 attribute value for all attributes of every possible flow a very
 large amount of data may be produced rapidly, but the meter has only
 a finite amount of memory for its flow table.  A better approach is
 to save the minimum amount of data required to achieve the
 measurement system goals.
 For example, to collect usage data so as to bill subscribers
 identified by their IP address one could just save the full IP
 address, nothing more.  The RTFM meter would produce flow data for
 each subscriber IP address, with PDU and Octet counts for data sent
 and received, which would be the minimum needed to produce bills.  In
 practice one would probably want to save at least part of the

Brownlee Informational [Page 4] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 Destination IP address, which would allow the production of usage
 logs showing subscriber activity over time.
 The simplest way to determine how much detail can be collected is to
 create an initial ruleset which collects the minimum amount, then to
 modify it step by step, gradually increasing the amount of
 information saved for each flow.  An RTFM meter ought to provide some
 measures of its own performance (e.g. number of active flows,
 percentage idle processor time, packets metered, packets not
 metered).  Such measures will be implementation-specific, but should
 allow a user to assess the impact of each change to the ruleset.
 If the network data rate is too high, i.e. the meter reports that it
 cannot meter all the packets even with the initial ruleset above, one
 may be able to use other strategies.  For example one could
  1. run the meter on a faster computer, e.g. move from a DOS PC to a

workstation, or perhaps use a meter implemented in firmware within

   a switch or router.
  1. use sampling. The details of such sampling are not defined within

the RTFM Architecture, but the Meter MIB provides one simple method

   by allowing one to specify that only every nth packet on an
   interface will be metered.   This would probably not be acceptable
   for producing billing data, but might well be acceptable for
   traffic engineering purposes.

5 Security Considerations

 These are discussed in detail in the Architecture and Meter MIB
 documents.  In brief, an RTFM Meter is an SNMP agent which observes a
 network and collects flow data from it.  Since it doesn't control the
 network directly, it has no direct effect on network security.
 On the other hand, the flow data itself may well be valuable - to the
 network operator (as billing data) or to an attacker (who may wish to
 modify that data, or the meter's ruleset(s)).  It is therefore
 important to take proper precautions to ensure that access to the
 meter and its data is sufficiently secure.
 For example, a meter port attached to a network should be passive, so
 that it cannot respond to login attempts of any kind.  Control and
 data connections to a meter should be via a secure management
 network.  Finally, suitable security should be established for the
 meter, as it would be for any other SNMP agent.

Brownlee Informational [Page 5] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 Meters may, like any other network component, be subjected to Denial
 of Service and other attacks.  These are outside the RTFM
 Architecture - countermeasures for them are available, but are also
 outside RTFM.

6 Policy Considerations

 When collecting traffic data, one must have well-defined operations
 policies covering points such as:
  1. Exactly what data is to be collected, at what level of detail?
  2. How long will the data be kept?
  3. What may the data be used for?
  4. Who will be allowed to see the raw data?
  5. May summaries of the data be shown to other people?
 Policy issues such as these should normally be considered as part of
 an organisation's Network Security Policy.
 Other policy issues relating more directly to the traffic data are
 essentially part of the measurement system design, such as:
  1. How much time resolution is required for the data?

(Less resolution implies longer collection intervals, but that may

   require more memory in the meters to hold flow data between
   collections).
  1. What level of hardware redundancy is needed?

(A single meter and meter reader is generally enough. For greater

   reliability, meters and meter readers can be duplicated).
  1. Who is allowed to use the system?

(Approved users will need permissions to download rulesets to the

   meters, and to collect their data, possibly via their own meter
   readers).

7 Soundness

 NeTraMet, the first implementation of the RTFM Architecture, has been
 in use worldwide since 1994.  Currently there are many organisations,
 large and small, using it to collect traffic data for billing
 purposes.
 One example of these is Kawaihiko, the New Zealand Universities'
 Network, which has seven RTFM meters located at sites throughout New
 Zealand.  One of the sites is NZIX, the New Zealand Internet eXchange
 at the University of Waikato, where Kawaihiko has a meter (attached
 to a 100baseT network) observing traffic flows across the exchange to

Brownlee Informational [Page 6] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 each of Kawaihiko's three international Internet Service Providers.
 5-minute Octet counts are collected from all the Kawaihiko meters by
 a single meter reader at Auckland.  Traffic data from the meters is
 used to determine the cost per month for each of the Kawaihiko sites.
 It is difficult to estimate how many organisations are using RTFM
 traffic measurement.  There are about 250 people on the NeTraMet
 mailing list, which often carries questions like 'why doesn't this
 ruleset do what I meant'?  Once new users have the system running,
 however, they tend to simply use it without further comment.
 From time to time the list provides useful feedback.  For example,
 early in 1998 there were two very significant user contributions:
  1. Jacek Kowalski (Telstra, Melbourne) described an improved hash

algorithm for NeTraMet's flow table, which provided almost an order

   of magnitude improvement in packet-handling performance.
  1. Kevin Hoadley (JANET, U.K.) reported having problems with very

large rulesets. These were resolved, and better methods of

   downloading rules developed, allowing NeTraMet to work well for
   rulesets with more than 32,000 rules.
 Perhaps one reason why there is little discussion of NeTraMet's use
 in collecting billing data is that users may consider that the way
 collect their data is a commercially sensitive matter.

Brownlee Informational [Page 7] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

8 Appendix A: WG Report on the Meter MIB

 The Meter MIB (in its current form) was developed early in 1996.  It
 was produced as an SNMPv2 MIB, following a number of detailed (and
 continuing) discussions with David Perkins beginning at the Dallas
 IETF meeting in December 1995.
 There are two current implementations:
  1. NeTraMet (Nevil Brownlee, The University of Auckland)
  1. IBM Meter (Sig Handelman & Stephen Stibler, IBM Research, N.Y, Bert

Wijnen provided further help with SNMP)

 The NeTraMet meter is a stand-alone SNMP agent using an SNMPv2C
 implementation derived from CMU SNMPv2.
 The IBM meter runs as a sub-agent on an AIX system.  All the meter
 code has been written by Stephen Stibler - it was not derived from
 the NeTraMet code.  Stephen has found it useful to use nifty, one of
 NeTraMet's manager/reader programs, to test the IBM meter.
 As indicated above, there have only been two implementors to date,
 and the Working Group consensus has been very strong.
 The MIB has one unusual aspect:  the method used to read large
 amounts of data from its Flow Table.  An earlier SNMPv1 version of
 the MIB was in use from 1992 to 1997; it used opaque objects to read
 column slices from the flow table for flows which had been active
 since a specified time.  This was very non-standard (or at least very
 application-specific).
 With the change to SNMPv2 we were able to use 64-bit counters for
 PDUs and Octets, RowStatus variables for control tables and GETBULK
 requests to read rows from the flow table.  We also use the
 TimeFilter convention from the RMON2 MIB to select flows to be read;
 this gives the meter MIB a strong resemblance to RMON2.
 The current MIB introduces a better way of reading large amounts of
 data from the flow table.  This is the 'DataPackage' convention,
 which specifies the attribute values to be read from a flow table
 row.  The meter returns the values for each required attribute within
 a BER-encoded sequence.  This means there is only one object
 identifier for the whole sequence, greatly reducing the number of
 bytes required to retrieve the data.  The combination of

Brownlee Informational [Page 8] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

 TimeFilter:  to select the flows to be read
 DataPackage: to select the attributes required for each flow
 GetBulk:     to read many flows with a single SNMP PDU
 provides a very effective way to read flow data from a traffic meter.

9 References

 [ACT-BKG]  Mills, C., Hirsch, G. and G. Ruth, "Internet Accounting
            Background", RFC 1272, November 1991.
 [RTFM-ARC] Brownlee, N., Mills, C. and G. Ruth, "Traffic Flow
            Measurement: Architecture", RFC 2722, October 1999.
 [RTFM-MIB] Brownlee, N., "Traffic Flow Measurement: Meter MIB", RFC
            2720, October 1999.
 [RTFM-NEW] Handelman, S., Stibler, S., Brownlee, N. and G. Ruth,
            "RTFM: New Attributes for Traffic Flow Measurement", RFC
            2724, October 1999.
 [RTFM-NTM] Brownlee, N., "Traffic Flow Measurement: Experiences with
            NeTraMet", RFC 2123, March 1997.
 [RTFM-SRL] Brownlee, N., "SRL: A Language for Describing Traffic
            Flows and Specifying Actions for Flow Groups", RFC 2723,
            October 1999.

10 Author's Address

 Nevil Brownlee
 Information Technology Systems & Services
 The University of Auckland
 Private Bag 92-019
 Auckland, New Zealand
 Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x8941
 EMail: n.brownlee@auckland.ac.nz

Brownlee Informational [Page 9] RFC 2721 RTFM: Applicability Statement October 1999

11 Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Brownlee Informational [Page 10]

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