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rfc:rfc5473

Network Working Group E. Boschi Request for Comments: 5473 Hitachi Europe Category: Informational L. Mark

                                                       Fraunhofer IFAM
                                                             B. Claise
                                                   Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                            March 2009
     Reducing Redundancy in IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
                and Packet Sampling (PSAMP) Reports

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) 2009 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 in effect on the date of
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 Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
 and restrictions with respect to this document.
 This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
 Contributions published or made publicly available before November
 10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
 material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
 modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
 Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
 the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
 outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
 not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
 it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
 than English.

Abstract

 This document describes a bandwidth saving method for exporting Flow
 or packet information using the IP Flow Information eXport (IPFIX)
 protocol.  As the Packet Sampling (PSAMP) protocol is based on IPFIX,
 these considerations are valid for PSAMP exports as well.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 This method works by separating information common to several Flow
 Records from information specific to an individual Flow Record.
 Common Flow information is exported only once in a Data Record
 defined by an Options Template, while the rest of the specific Flow
 information is associated with the common information via a unique
 identifier.

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ....................................................3
    1.1. IPFIX Documents Overview ...................................3
    1.2. PSAMP Documents Overview ...................................4
 2. Terminology .....................................................4
    2.1. Terminology Summary Table ..................................5
    2.2. IPFIX Flows versus PSAMP Packets ...........................5
 3. Specifications for Bandwidth-Saving Information Export ..........5
    3.1. Problem Statement and High-Level Solution ..................6
    3.2. Data Reduction Technique ...................................7
 4. Transport Protocol Choice .......................................8
    4.1. PR-SCTP ....................................................9
    4.2. UDP ........................................................9
    4.3. TCP ........................................................9
 5. commonPropertiesID Management ...................................9
 6. The Collecting Process Side ....................................10
    6.1. UDP .......................................................11
    6.2. TCP .......................................................12
 7. Advanced Techniques ............................................12
    7.1. Multiple Data Reduction ...................................12
    7.2. Cascading Common Properties ...............................15
 8. Export and Evaluation Considerations ...........................15
    8.1. Transport Protocol Choice .................................16
    8.2. Reduced Size Encoding .....................................16
    8.3. Efficiency Gain ...........................................16
 9. Security Considerations ........................................17
 10. Acknowledgments ...............................................17
 11. References ....................................................17
    11.1. Normative References .....................................17
    11.2. Informative References ...................................18
 Appendix A. Examples ..............................................19
    A.1. Per-Flow Data Reduction ...................................19
    A.2. Per-Packet Data Reduction .................................23
    A.3. Common Properties Withdrawal Message ......................26

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

1. Introduction

 The IPFIX working group has specified a protocol to export IP Flow
 information [RFC5101].  This protocol is designed to export
 information about IP traffic Flows and related measurement data,
 where a Flow is defined by a set of key attributes (e.g., source and
 destination IP address, source and destination port, etc.).  However,
 thanks to its template mechanism, the IPFIX protocol can export any
 type of information, as long as the Information Element is specified
 in the IPFIX information model [RFC5101] or registered with IANA.
 Regardless of the fields' contents, Flow Records with common
 properties export the same fields in every single Data Record.  These
 common properties may represent values common to a collection of
 Flows or packets, or values that are invariant over time.  Note that
 the common properties don't represent the list of Flow Keys, which
 are used to define a Flow definition; however, the common properties
 may contain some of the Flow Keys.  The reduction of redundant data
 from the export stream can result in a significant reduction of the
 transferred data.
 This document specifies a way to export these invariant or common
 properties only once, while the rest of the Flow-specific properties
 are exported in regular Data Records.  Unique common properties
 identifiers are used to link Data Records and the common attributes.
 The proposed method is applicable to IPFIX Flow and to PSAMP per-
 packet information, without any changes to both the IPFIX and PSAMP
 protocol specifications.

1.1. IPFIX Documents Overview

 The IPFIX protocol [RFC5101] provides network administrators with
 access to IP Flow information.  The architecture for the export of
 measured IP Flow information out of an IPFIX exporting process to a
 collecting process is defined in the IPFIX Architecture [RFC5470],
 per the requirements defined in RFC 3917 [RFC3917].  The IPFIX
 Architecture [RFC5470] specifies how IPFIX Data Records and templates
 are carried via a congestion-aware transport protocol from IPFIX
 exporting processes to IPFIX collecting processes.  IPFIX has a
 formal description of IPFIX Information Elements, their names, types,
 and additional semantic information, as specified in the IPFIX
 information model [RFC5102].  Finally, the IPFIX applicability
 statement [RFC5472] describes what type of applications can use the
 IPFIX protocol and how they can use the information provided.  It
 furthermore shows how the IPFIX framework relates to other
 architectures and frameworks.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 3] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

1.2. PSAMP Documents Overview

 The document "A Framework for Packet Selection and Reporting"
 [RFC5474] describes the PSAMP framework for network elements to
 select subsets of packets by statistical and other methods, and to
 export a stream of reports on the selected packets to a collector.
 The set of packet selection techniques (sampling, filtering, and
 hashing) supported by PSAMP is described in "Sampling and Filtering
 Techniques for IP Packet Selection" [RFC5475].  The PSAMP protocol
 [RFC5476] specifies the export of packet information from a PSAMP
 exporting process to a PSAMP collecting process.  Like IPFIX, PSAMP
 has a formal description of its Information Elements, their names,
 types, and additional semantic information.  The PSAMP information
 model is defined in [RFC5477].  Finally, [PSAMP-MIB] describes the
 PSAMP Management Information Base.

2. Terminology

 IPFIX-specific terminology used in this document is defined in
 Section 2 of the IPFIX protocol specification [RFC5101] and Section 3
 of the PSAMP protocol specification [RFC5476].  As in [RFC5101] and
 [RFC5476], these IPFIX-specific terms have the first letter of a word
 capitalized when used in this document.
 In addition, the following new terms are defined in this document:
 commonPropertiesID:  The commonPropertiesID is an identifier of a set
    of common properties that is locally unique per Observation Domain
    and Transport Session.  Typically, this Information Element is
    used to link to information reported in separate Data Records.
    See the IPFIX information model [RFC5102] for the Information
    Element definition.
 Common Properties:  Common Properties are a collection of one or more
    attributes shared by a set of different Flow Records.  Each set of
    Common Properties is uniquely identifiable by means of a
    commonPropertiesID.
 Specific Properties:  Specific Properties are a collection of one or
    more attributes reported in a Flow Record that are not included in
    the Common Properties defined for that Flow Record.
 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 4] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

2.1. Terminology Summary Table

 +------------------+---------------------------------------------+
 |                  |                 Contents                    |
 |                  +--------------------+------------------------+
 |       Set        |      Template      |         Record         |
 +------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
 |     Data Set     |          /         |     Data Record(s)     |
 +------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
 |   Template Set   | Template Record(s) |           /            |
 +------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
 | Options Template | Options Template   |           /            |
 |       Set        | Record(s)          |                        |
 +------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
                       Terminology Summary Table
 A Data Set is composed of Data Record(s).  No Template Record is
 included.  A Template Record or an Options Template Record defines
 the Data Record.
 A Template Set contains only Template Record(s).
 An Options Template Set contains only Options Template Record(s).

2.2. IPFIX Flows versus PSAMP Packets

 As described in the PSAMP protocol specification [RFC5476], the major
 difference between IPFIX and PSAMP is that the IPFIX protocol exports
 Flow Records while the PSAMP protocol exports Packet Records.  From a
 pure export point of view, IPFIX will not distinguish a Flow Record
 composed of several packets aggregated together from a Flow Record
 composed of a single packet.  So, the PSAMP export can be seen as a
 special IPFIX Flow Record containing information about a single
 packet.
 For this document's clarity, the term Flow Record represents a
 generic term expressing an IPFIX Flow Record or a PSAMP Packet
 Record, as foreseen by its definition.  However, when appropriate, a
 clear distinction between Flow Record or Packet Record will be made.

3. Specifications for Bandwidth-Saving Information Export

 Several Flow Records often share a set of Common Properties.
 Repeating the information about these Common Properties for every
 Flow Record introduces a huge amount of redundancy.  This document
 proposes a method to reduce this redundancy.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 5] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 The PSAMP specifications are used for the export of per-packet
 information, exporting the specific observed packet in an IPFIX Flow
 Record.  This can be considered as a special Flow Record case,
 composed of a single packet.  Therefore, the method described in this
 document is also applicable to per-packet data reduction, e.g., for
 export of One-Way Delay (OWD) measurements (see Appendix), trajectory
 sampling, etc.

3.1. Problem Statement and High-Level Solution

 Consider a set of properties "A", e.g., common sourceAddressA and
 sourcePortA, equivalent for each Flow Record exported.  Figure 1
 shows how this information is repeated with classical IPFIX Flow
 Records, expressing the waste of bandwidth to export redundant
 information.
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
 | sourceAddressA | sourcePortA |     <Flow1 information>   |
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
 | sourceAddressA | sourcePortA |     <Flow2 information>   |
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
 | sourceAddressA | sourcePortA |     <Flow3 information>   |
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
 | sourceAddressA | sourcePortA |     <Flow4 information>   |
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
 |      ...       |     ...     |            ...            |
 +----------------+-------------+---------------------------+
      Figure 1: Common and Specific Properties Exported Together
 Figure 2 shows how this information is exported when applying the
 specifications of this document.  The Common Properties are separated
 from the Specific Properties for each Flow Record.  The Common
 Properties would be exported only once in a specific Data Record
 (defined by an Options Template), while each Flow Record contains a
 pointer to the Common Properties A, along with its Flow-specific
 information.  In order to maintain the relationship between these
 sets of properties, we introduce indices (in this case, the index for
 properties A) for the Common Properties that are unique for all
 Common Properties entries within an Observation Domain.  The purpose
 of the indices is to serve as a "key" identifying "rows" of the
 Common Properties table.  The rows are then referenced by the
 Specific Properties by using the appropriate value for the Common
 Properties identifier.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 6] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 +------------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 | index for properties A | sourceAddressA  | sourcePortA |
 +------------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 |          ...           |      ...        |     ...     |
 +------------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 +------------------------+---------------------------+
 | index for properties A |     <Flow1 information>   |
 +------------------------+---------------------------+
 | index for properties A |     <Flow2 information>   |
 +------------------------+---------------------------+
 | index for properties A |     <Flow3 information>   |
 +------------------------+---------------------------+
 | index for properties A |     <Flow4 information>   |
 +------------------------+---------------------------+
     Figure 2: Common and Specific Properties Exported Separately
 This unique export of the Common Properties results in a decrease of
 the bandwidth requirements for the path between the Exporter and the
 Collector.

3.2. Data Reduction Technique

 The IPFIX protocol [RFC5101] is Template based.  Templates define how
 data should be exported, describing data fields together with their
 type and meaning.  IPFIX specifies two types of Templates: the
 Template Record and the Options Template Record.  The difference
 between the two is that the Options Template Record includes the
 notion of scope, defining how to scope the applicability of the Data
 Record.  The scope, which is only available in the Options Template
 Record, gives the context of the reported Information Elements in the
 Data Records.  The Template Records and Options Template Records are
 necessary to decode the Data Records.  Indeed, by only looking at the
 Data Records themselves, it is impossible to distinguish a Data
 Record defined by Template Record from a Data Record defined by an
 Options Template Record.  To export information more efficiently,
 this specification proposes to group Flow Records by their common
 properties.  We define Common Properties as a collection of
 attributes shared by a set of different Flow Records.
 An implementation using the proposed specification MUST follow the
 IPFIX transport protocol specifications defined in the IPFIX protocol
 [RFC5101].

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 7] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 As explained in Figure 3, the information is split into two parts,
 using two different Data Records.  Common Properties MUST be exported
 via Data Records defined by an Options Template Record.  Like
 Template Records, they MUST be sent only once per SCTP association or
 TCP connection, and MUST be sent reliably via SCTP if SCTP is the
 transport protocol.  These properties represent values common to
 several Flow Records (e.g., IP source and destination address).  The
 Common Properties Data Records MUST be sent prior to the
 corresponding Specific Properties Data Records.  The Data Records
 reporting Specific Properties MUST be associated with the Data
 Records reporting the Common Properties using a unique identifier for
 the Common Properties, the commonPropertiesID Information Element
 [RFC5102].  The commonPropertiesID Information Element MUST be
 included in the scope of the Options Template Record, and also
 included in the associated Template Record.
 +---------------------------+     +---------------------+
 | Common Properties         |     | Specific Properties |  Template
 | Options Template Record   |     | Template Record     |  Definition
 |                           |     |                     |
 | scope: commonPropertiesID |     | commonPropertiesID  |
 | Common Properties         |     | Specific Properties |
 +------------+--------------+     +----------+----------+
 .............|...............................|.......................
              |                               |
 +------------v-------------+      +----------v----------+
 | Common Properties        |      | Specific Properties |+  Exported
 | Data Record              |------> Data Records        ||  Data
 +--------------------------+      +---------------------+|  Records
                                    +---------------------+
        Figure 3: Template Record and Data Record Dependencies
 From the IPFIX protocol, there are no differences between the per-
 Flow or per-packet data reduction, except maybe the terminology where
 the Specific Properties could be called packet Specific Properties in
 the previous figure.

4. Transport Protocol Choice

 This document follows the IPFIX transport protocol specifications
 defined in the IPFIX protocol [RFC5101].  However, depending on the
 transport protocol choice, this document imposes some additional
 constraints.  If Partial Reliable Stream Control Transmission
 Protocol (PR-SCTP) [RFC3758] is selected as the IPFIX protocol, the
 following PR-SCTP subsection specifications MUST be respected.  If
 UDP is selected as the IPFIX protocol, the following UDP subsection

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 8] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 specifications MUST be respected.  If TCP is selected as the IPFIX
 protocol, the following TCP subsection specifications MUST be
 respected.

4.1. PR-SCTP

 The active Common Properties MUST be sent after the SCTP association
 establishment and before the corresponding Specific Properties Data
 Records.  In the case of SCTP association re-establishment, all
 active Common Properties MUST be resent before the corresponding
 Specific Properties Data Records.
 The Common Properties Data Records MUST be sent reliably.

4.2. UDP

 Common Properties Data Records MUST be resent on a regular basis.
 The periodicity MUST be configurable.  The default value for the
 frequency of Common Properties transmission (refresh timeout) is 10
 minutes.
 The Exporting Process SHOULD transmit the Common Properties
 definition in advance of any Data Record that uses these Common
 Properties to help ensure that the Collector has the Common
 Properties definition before receiving the first associated Data
 Record.
 If a commonPropertiesID is not used anymore, the Exporting Process
 stops resending the related Common Properties Data Record.  The old
 commonPropertiesID MUST NOT be used until its lifetime (see
 Section 6.1) has expired.

4.3. TCP

 Common Properties MUST be sent after the TCP connection
 establishment, and before the corresponding Specific Properties Data
 Records.  In the case of TCP connection re-establishment, all active
 Common Properties MUST be resent before the corresponding Specific
 Properties Data Records.

5. commonPropertiesID Management

 The commonPropertiesID is an identifier of a set of common properties
 that is locally unique per Observation Domain and Transport Session.
 The Exporting Process MUST manage the commonPropertiesIDs allocations
 for its Observation Domains and Transport Session.  Different

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 9] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 Observation Domains from the same Exporter MAY use the same
 commonPropertiesID value to refer to different sets of Common
 Properties.
 The commonPropertiesID values MAY be assigned sequentially, but it is
 NOT REQUIRED.  Particular commonPropertiesID ranges or values MAY
 have explicit meanings for the IPFIX Device.  For example,
 commonPropertiesID values may be assigned based on the result of a
 hash function, etc.
 Using a 64-bit commonPropertiesID Information Element allows the
 export of 2**64 active sets of Common Properties, per Observation
 Domain and per Transport Session.
 commonPropertiesIDs that are not used anymore SHOULD be withdrawn.
 The Common Properties Withdrawal message is a Data Record defined by
 an Options Template consisting of only one scope field -- namely, the
 commonPropertiesID (with a type of 137 [RFC5102]) and no non-scope
 fields.
 0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 3            |      Length = 14 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       Template ID N           |       Field Count = 1         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Scope Field count = 1    |0|  commonPropertiesID = 137   |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Scope 1 Field Length = 8     |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
            Figure 4: Common Properties Withdrawal Message
 If UDP is selected as the transport protocol, the Common Properties
 Withdrawal messages MUST NOT be used, as this method is inefficient
 due to the unreliable nature of UDP.

6. The Collecting Process Side

 This section describes the Collecting Process when using SCTP and PR-
 SCTP as the transport protocol.  Any necessary changes to the
 Collecting Process, specifically related to TCP or UDP transport
 protocols, are specified in the subsections.
 The Collecting Process MUST store the commonPropertiesID information
 for the duration of the association so that it can interpret the
 corresponding Data Records that are received in subsequent Data Sets.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 10] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 The Collecting Process can either store the Data Records as they
 arrive, without reconstructing the initial Flow Record, or
 reconstruct the initial Flow Record.  In the former case, there might
 be less storage capacity required at the Collector side.  In the
 latter case, the Collector job is more complex and time-consuming due
 to the higher resource demand for record processing in real time.
 If the Collecting Process has received the Specific Properties Data
 Record before the associated Common Properties Data Record, the
 Collecting Process SHOULD store the Specific Properties Data Record
 and await the retransmission or out-of-order arrival of the Common
 Properties Data Record.
 commonPropertiesIDs are unique per SCTP association and per
 Observation Domain.  If the Collecting Process receives an Options
 Template Record with a scope containing a commonPropertiesID that has
 already been received but that has not previously been withdrawn
 (i.e., a commonPropertiesID from the same Exporter Observation Domain
 received on the SCTP association), then the Collecting Process MUST
 shut down the association.
 When an SCTP association is closed, the Collecting Process MUST
 discard all commonPropertiesIDs received over that association and
 stop decoding IPFIX Messages that use those commonPropertiesIDs.
 If a Collecting Process receives a Common Properties Withdrawal
 message, the Collecting Process MUST delete the corresponding Common
 Properties associated with the specific SCTP association and specific
 Observation Domain, and stop interpreting Data Records referring to
 those Common Properties.  The receipt of Data Records referring to
 Common Properties that have been withdrawn MUST be ignored and SHOULD
 be logged by the Collecting Process.
 If the Collecting Process receives a Common Properties Withdrawal
 message for Common Properties that it has not received before on this
 SCTP association, it MUST reset the SCTP association and discard the
 IPFIX Message, and it SHOULD log the error as it does for malformed
 IPFIX Messages.

6.1. UDP

 The Collecting Process MUST associate a lifetime with each Common
 Property received via UDP.  Common Properties not refreshed by the
 Exporting Process within the lifetime are expired at the Collecting
 Process.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 11] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 If the Common Properties are not refreshed before that lifetime has
 expired, the Collecting Process MUST discard the corresponding
 definition of the commonPropertiesID and any current and future
 associated Data Records.  In this case, an alarm MUST be logged.
 The Collecting Process MUST NOT decode any further Data Records that
 are associated with the expired Common Properties.  If a Common
 Property is refreshed with a definition that differs from the
 previous definition, the Collecting Process SHOULD log a warning and
 replace the previously received Common Property with the new one.
 The Common Property lifetime at the Collecting Process MUST be at
 least 3 times higher than the refresh timeout of the Template used to
 export the Common Property definition, configured on the Exporting
 Process.
 The Collecting Process SHOULD accept Data Records without the
 associated Common Properties required to decode the Data Record.  If
 the Common Properties have not been received at the time Data Records
 are received, the Collecting Process SHOULD store the Data Records
 for a short period of time and decode them after the Common
 Properties definitions are received.  The short period of time MUST
 be lower than the lifetime of definitions associated with identifiers
 considered unique within the UDP session.

6.2. TCP

 When the TCP connection is reset, either gracefully or abnormally,
 the Collecting Processes MUST delete all commonPropertiesID values
 and associated Common Properties data corresponding to that
 connection.
 If a Collection Process receives a Common Properties Withdrawal
 message, the Collection Process MUST expire the related Common
 Properties data.

7. Advanced Techniques

7.1. Multiple Data Reduction

 A Flow Record can refer to one or more Common Properties sets; the
 use of multiple Common Properties can lead to more efficient exports.
 When sets of Common Properties are identified in the data, it may be
 found that there is more than one set of non-overlapping properties.
 Note that in the case of multiple Common Properties in one Data
 Record, the different sets of Common Properties MUST be disjoint
 (i.e., MUST NOT have Information Elements in common) to avoid
 potential collisions.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 12] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 Consider a set of properties "A", e.g., common sourceAddressA and
 sourcePortA, and another set of properties "B", e.g.,
 destinationAddressB and destinationPortB.  Figure 5 shows how this
 information is repeated with classical IPFIX export in several Flow
 Records.
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
 |srcAddrA|srcPortA|destAddrB|destPortB| <Flow1 information> |
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
 |srcAddrA|srcPortA|destAddrC|destPortC| <Flow2 information> |
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
 |srcAddrD|srcPortD|destAddrB|destPortB| <Flow3 information> |
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
 |srcAddrD|srcPortD|destAddrC|destPortC| <Flow4 information> |
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
 |   ...  |   ...  |   ...   |   ...   |        ...          |
 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------------------+
      Figure 5: Common and Specific Properties Exported Together
 Besides A and B, other sets of Properties might be repeated as well
 (e.g., Properties C and D in the figure above).
 We can separate the Common Properties into properties A composed of
 sourceAddressA and sourcePortA, properties D composed of
 sourceAddressD and sourcePortD, properties B composed of
 destinationAddressB and destinationPortB, and properties C composed
 of destinationAddressC and destinationPortC.  These four records can
 be expanded to four combinations of Data Records to reduce redundancy
 without the need to define four complete sets of Common Properties
 (see the figure below).  The more Common Properties sets that are
 defined, the more combinations that are available.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 13] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 +-------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 | index for prop. A | sourceAddressA  | sourcePortA |
 +-------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 | index for prop. D | sourceAddressD  | sourcePortD |
 +-------------------+-----------------+-------------+
 +-------------------+---------------------+------------------+
 | index for prop. B | destinationAddressB | destinationPortB |
 +-------------------+---------------------+------------------+
 | index for prop. C | destinationAddressC | destinationPortC |
 +-------------------+---------------------+------------------+
 +------------------+------------------+-----------------------+
 |index for prop. A |index for prop. B |  <Flow1 information>  |
 +------------------+------------------+-----------------------+
 |index for prop. A |index for prop. C |  <Flow2 information>  |
 +------------------+------------------+-----------------------+
 |index for prop. D |index for prop. B |  <Flow3 information>  |
 +------------------+------------------+-----------------------+
 |index for prop. D |index for prop. C |  <Flow4 information>  |
 +------------------+------------------+-----------------------+
   Figure 6: Multiple Common (above) and Specific Properties (below)
                          Exported Separately
 The advantage of the multiple Common Properties is that the objective
 of reducing the bandwidth is met while the number of indices is kept
 to a minimum.  Defining an extra index for all records would not save
 bandwidth in the case of Figure 5 and is generally a less efficient
 solution.
 If a set of Flow Records share multiple sets of Common Properties,
 multiple commonPropertiesID instances MAY be used to increase export
 efficiency even further, as displayed in Figure 7.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 14] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 +--------------------------- +     +---------------------+
 | Common Properties          |     | Specific Properties | Template
 | Options Template Record    |     | Template Record     | Definition
 |                            |     |                     |
 | Scope: commonPropertiesID1 |     | commonPropertiesID1 |
 | Scope: commonPropertiesID2 |     | commonPropertiesID2 |
 | Common Properties          |     | Specific Properties |
 +------------+---------------+     +---------+-----------+
 .............|...............................|.......................
              |                               |
 +------------v-------------+      +----------v----------+
 | Common Properties        |      | Specific Properties |+  Exported
 | Data Record              |------> Data Records        ||  Data
 +------------------------- +      +---------------------+|  Records
                                    +---------------------+
                   Figure 7: Multiple Data Reduction

7.2. Cascading Common Properties

 An Exporting Process MUST NOT export any set of Common Properties
 that contains, either directly or via other cascaded Common
 Properties, references to itself in its own definition (i.e., a
 circular definition).  When the Collecting Process receives Common
 Properties that reference other Common Properties, it MUST resolve
 the references to Common Properties.  If the Common Properties aren't
 available at the time Data Records are received, the Collecting
 Process SHOULD store the Data Records for a short period of time and
 decode them after the Common Properties are received.
 If the Collecting Process could not decode a cascading Common
 Properties definition because the referenced Common Properties are
 not available before the short period of time, then the Collecting
 Process SHOULD log the error.
 If the Collecting Process could not decode a cascading Common
 Properties definition because it detects a circular definition, then
 the Collecting Process SHOULD log the error.
 Information Element ordering MUST be preserved when creating and
 expanding Common Properties.

8. Export and Evaluation Considerations

 The objective of the method specified in this document is the
 reduction in the amount of measurement data that has to be
 transferred from the Exporter to the Collector.  Note that the
 efficiency of this method may vary, as discussed in this section.  In

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 15] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 addition, there might be less storage capacity required at the
 Collector side if the Collector decides to store the Data Records as
 they arrive, without reconstructing the initial Flow Record.
 On the other hand, this method requires additional resources on both
 the Exporter and the Collector.  The Exporter has to manage Common
 Properties information and to assign commonPropertiesID values.  The
 Collector has to process records described by two templates instead
 of just one.  Additional effort is also required when post processing
 the measurement data, in order to correlate Flow Records with Common
 Properties information.

8.1. Transport Protocol Choice

 The proposed method is most effective using a reliable transport
 protocol for the transfer of the Common Properties.  Therefore, the
 use of PR-SCTP with full reliability or TCP is recommended for the
 transmission of IPFIX Messages containing Common Properties.  Note
 that use of UDP is less efficient for the transmission of Common
 Properties, as they have to be resent regularly.

8.2. Reduced Size Encoding

 The transfer of the commonPropertiesIDs originates some overhead and
 might even increase the amount of exported data if the length of the
 commonPropertiesID field is not shorter than the length of the
 replaced fields.
 In cases where the range of the commonPropertiesID can be restricted,
 it is RECOMMENDED to apply reduced size encoding to the
 commonPropertiesID to achieve a further gain in bandwidth efficiency.

8.3. Efficiency Gain

 While the goal of this specification is to reduce the bandwidth, the
 efficiency might be limited.  Indeed, the efficiency gain is based on
 the abundance of redundant information in Flows and would be directly
 proportional to the reuse of the defined commonPropertiesID values,
 with a theoretical limit where all the Data Records would use a
 single commonPropertiesID.  In other words, the more we reuse a
 commonPropertiesID value, the better the efficiency gain.  While the
 Exporting Process can evaluate the direct gain for the Flow Records
 to be exported, it cannot predict whether future Flow Records would
 contain the information specified by active commonPropertiesID
 values.  This implies that the efficiency factor of this
 specification is higher for specific applications where filtering is
 involved, such as one-way delay or trajectory sampling.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 16] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 Note that this technique might even lead to an increase in bandwidth
 usage under certain conditions.  Taking into account the overhead of
 exporting the commonPropertiesID values, if the commonPropertiesID
 values are not used in future Data Records, this technique would
 actually increase the export bandwidth.  A typical case would be the
 assignments of Common Properties based on past observed traffic,
 hoping that future Flows would contain the same characteristics.
 The efficiency gain depends also on the difference between the length
 of the replaced fields and the length of the commonPropertiesID.  The
 shorter the length of the commonPropertiesID is (with respect to the
 total length of the Common Properties fields), the bigger the gain
 is.
 The example in Appendix A.2 below uses IPFIX to export measurement
 data for each received packet.  In that case, for a Flow of 1000
 packets, the amount of data can be decreased more than 26 percent.

9. Security Considerations

 The same security considerations as for the IPFIX protocol [RFC5101]
 apply.

10. Acknowledgments

 The authors would like to thank Guido Pohl for initiating this work
 and for his contribution to early versions of this document.  Thanks
 also to Andrew Johnson, Gehrard Muenz, Brian Trammell, and Paul
 Aitken for their comments and feedback.

11. References

11.1. Normative References

 [RFC2119]    Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [RFC5101]    Claise, B., "Specification of the IP Flow Information
              Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic
              Flow Information", RFC 5101, January 2008.
 [RFC5102]    Quittek, J., Bryant, S., Claise, B., Aitken, P., and J.
              Meyer, "Information Model for IP Flow Information
              Export", RFC 5102, January 2008.
 [RFC5476]    Claise, B., Ed., "Packet Sampling (PSAMP) Protocol
              Specifications", RFC 5476, March 2009.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 17] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

11.2. Informative References

 [PSAMP-MIB]  Dietz, T., Ed. and B. Claise, "Definitions of Managed
              Objects for Packet Sampling", Work in Progress,
              June 2006.
 [RFC3550]    Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V.
              Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
              Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, July 2003.
 [RFC3758]    Stewart, R., Ramalho, M., Xie, Q., Tuexen, M., and P.
              Conrad, "Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)
              Partial Reliability Extension", RFC 3758, May 2004.
 [RFC3917]    Quittek, J., Zseby, T., Claise, B., and S. Zander,
              "Requirements for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)",
              RFC 3917, October 2004.
 [RFC4960]    Stewart, R., "Stream Control Transmission Protocol",
              RFC 4960, September 2007.
 [RFC5470]    Sadasivan, G., Brownlee, N., Claise, B., and J. Quittek,
              "Architecture for IP Flow Information Export", RFC 5470,
              March 2009.
 [RFC5472]    Zseby, T., Boschi, E., Brownlee, N., and B. Claise, "IP
              Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Applicability",
              RFC 5472, March 2009.
 [RFC5474]    Duffield, N., Ed., "A Framework for Packet Selection and
              Reporting", RFC 5474, March 2009.
 [RFC5475]    Zseby, T., Molina, M., Duffield, N., Niccolini, S., and
              F. Raspall, "Sampling and Filtering Techniques for IP
              Packet Selection", RFC 5475, March 2009.
 [RFC5477]    Dietz, T., Claise, B., Aitken, P., Dressler, F., and G.
              Carle, "Information Model for Packet Sampling Exports",
              RFC 5477, March 2009.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 18] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

Appendix A. Examples

A.1. Per-Flow Data Reduction

 In this section, we show how Flow information can be exported
 efficiently using the method described in this document.  Let's
 suppose we have to periodically export data about two IPv6 Flows.
 In this example, we report the following information:
 Flow|        dstIPv6Address                 | dst- |nPkts|nBytes
     |                                       | Port |     |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
  A  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71 |  80  | 30  |  6000
     |                                       |      |     |
  A  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71 |  80  | 50  |  9500
     |                                       |      |     |
  B  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:00AA:00B7:AF2B | 1932 | 60  |  8000
     |                                       |      |     |
  A  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71 |  80  | 40  |  6500
     |                                       |      |     |
  A  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71 |  80  | 60  |  9500
     |                                       |      |     |
  B  |2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:00AA:00B7:AF2B | 1932 | 54  |  7600
                  Figure 8: Flow Information Example
 The Common Properties in this case are the destination IPv6 address
 and the destination port.  We first define an Options Template that
 contains the following Information Elements:
 o  Scope: commonPropertiesID in [RFC5102], with a type of 137 and a
    length of 8 octets.
 o  The destination IPv6 address: destinationIPv6Address in [RFC5102],
    with a type of 28 and a length of 16 octets.
 o  The destination port: destinationTransportPort in [RFC5102], with
    a type of 11, and a length of 2 octets.
 Figure 9 shows the Options Template defining the Common Properties
 with commonPropertiesID as scope:

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 19] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

   0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 3            |      Length = 24 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       Template ID = 257       |       Field Count = 3         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Scope Field count = 1    |0|  commonPropertiesID = 137   |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Scope 1 Field Length = 8     |0|  destinationIPv6Address = 28|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 16        |0|destinationTransportPort = 11|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 2         |        (Padding)              |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
             Figure 9: Common Properties Options Template
 The Specific Properties Template consists of the information not
 contained in the Options Templates, i.e., Flow-specific information;
 in this case, the number of packets and the number of bytes to be
 reported.  Additionally, this Template contains the
 commonPropertiesID.  In Data Records, the value of this field will
 contain one of the unique indices of the Option Records exported
 before.  It contains the following Information Elements (see also
 Figure 10):
 o  commonPropertiesID with a length of 8 octets.
 o  The number of packets of the Flow: inPacketDeltaCount in
    [RFC5102], with a length of 4 octets.
 o  The number of octets of the Flow: inOctetDeltaCount in [RFC5102],
    with a length of 4 octets.

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 20] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

   0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 2            |      Length = 20 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       Template ID = 258       |       Field Count = 3         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |0|  commonPropertiesID = 137   |       Field Length = 8        |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |0|    inPacketDeltaCount = 2   |       Field Length = 4        |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |0|    inOctetDeltaCount = 1    |       Field Length = 4        |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                Figure 10: Specific Properties Template
 Considering the data shown at the beginning of this example, the
 following two Data Records will be exported:
 Common-      |           dstAddress                    | dst-
 PropertiesID |                                         | Port
 -------------+-----------------------------------------+-------
     101      | 2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71  |  80
              |                                         |
     102      | 2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:00AA:00B7:AF2B  | 1932
                               Figure 11

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 21] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 The Data Records reporting the Common Properties will look like:
 0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 257          |      Length = 60 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +-                             101                             -+
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +-                                                             -+
 |                                                               |
 +-           2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:0800:2023:1D71            -+
 |                                                               |
 +-                                                             -+
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |            80                 |                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-                             -+
 |                              102                              |
 +-                             -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                               |                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                              -+
 |                                                               |
 +-                                                             -+
 |            2001:DB8:80AD:5800:0058:00AA:00B7:AF2B             |
 +-                                                             -+
 |                                                               |
 +-                             -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                               |          1932                 |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          Figure 12: Data Records reporting Common Properties
 The Data Records will in turn be:
 commonPropertiesID  |  inPacketDeltaCount  | inOctetDeltaCount
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
         101         |          30          |       6000
         101         |          50          |       9500
         102         |          60          |       8000
         101         |          40          |       6500
         101         |          60          |       9500
         102         |          54          |       7600
                               Figure 13

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 22] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 Figure 14 shows the first Data Record listed in the table:
  0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |          Set ID = 258         |          Length = 16          |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +-                             101                             -+
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |               30              |             6000              |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          Figure 14: Data Record reporting Common Properties

A.2. Per-Packet Data Reduction

 An example of the per-packet data reduction is the measurement of
 One-Way Delay (OWD), where the exact same specific packet must be
 observed at the source and destination of the path to be measured.
 The OWD is computed by subtracting the time of observation of the
 same packet at the two end-points with synchronized clocks.  As the
 OWD is measured for a specific application on which a Service Level
 Agreement (SLA) is bound, this translates into the observation of
 multiple packets with Specific Properties.  In order to match the
 identical packet at both Observation Points, a series of packets with
 a set of properties (for example, all the packets of a specific
 source and destination IP addresses, of a specific Diffserv codepoint
 (DSCP) value, and of a specific destination transport port) must be
 observed at both ends of the measurements.  This implies that the
 source and destination must export a series of Flow Records composed
 of two types of information: some common information for all packets,
 and some unique information about each packet in order to generate a
 unique identifier for each packet passing this Observation Point (for
 example, a hash value on the invariant fields of the packet).  So,
 the source and destination composing the measurement's end-points can
 individually and independently apply the redundancy technique
 described in this document in order to save some bandwidth for their
 respective Flow Records exports.
 The Templates required for exporting measurement data of this kind
 are illustrated in the figures below.  Figure 15 shows the Options
 Template containing the information concerning Flows using the
 commonPropertiesID as scope.  In the Common Properties Template, we
 export the following Information Elements:

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 23] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 o  The source IPv4 Address: sourceIPv4Address in [RFC5102], with a
    type of 8 and a length of 4 octets.
 o  The destination IPv4 Address: destinationIPv4Address in [RFC5102],
    with a type of 12 and a length of 4 octets.
 o  The Class of Service field: ClassOfServiceIPv4 in [RFC5102], with
    a type of 5 and a length of 1 octet.
 o  The Protocol Identifier: protocolIdentifier in [RFC5102], with a
    type of 4 and a length of 1 octet.
 o  The source port: sourceTransportPort in [RFC5102], with a type of
    7 and a length of 2 octets.
 o  The destination port: destinationTransportPort in [RFC5102], with
    a type of 11 and a length of 2 octets.
 The commonPropertiesID Information Element is used as the Scope
 Field.
   0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 3            |      Length = 40 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       Template ID = 256       |       Field Count = 7         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Scope Field count = 1    |0|  commonPropertiesID = 137   |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Scope 1 Field Length = 4     |0|    sourceIPv4Address = 8    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 4         |0| destinationIPv4Address = 12 |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 4         |0|  classOfServiceIPv4 = 5     |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 1         |0|  protocolIdentifier = 4     |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 1         |0|  transportSourcePort = 7    |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 2         |0|transportDestinationPort = 11|
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Field Length = 2         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
              Figure 15: Example Flow Properties Template

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 24] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 For passive OWD measurement, the Packet Properties Template or
 Specific Properties Template consists of at least the timestamp and
 packet ID.  Additionally, this template contains a commonPropertiesID
 field to associate the packet with a Flow.
 Figure 16 displays the template with the packet properties.  In this
 example, we export the following Information Elements:
 o  commonPropertiesID.  In this case, reduced size encoding is used,
    and the Information Element is declared with a length of 4 octets
    instead of 8.
 o  The packet timestamp: observationTimeMilliseconds in the PSAMP
    information model [RFC5477], with a type of 323 and a length of 8
    octets.
 o  digestHashValue in the PSAMP information model [RFC5477], with a
    type of 326 and a length of 8 octets.
 o  The packet length: ipTotalLength in the IPFIX information model
    [RFC5102], with a type of 224 and a length of 8 octets.
    0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |         Set ID = 2            |      Length = 36 octets       |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |       Template ID = 257       |       Field Count = 4         |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |0|  commonPropertiesID = 137   |       Field Length = 4        |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |0| observationTimeMillis.= 323 |       Field Length = 8        |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |0|    digestHashValue = 326    |       Field Length = 8        |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |0|    ipTotalLength = 224      |       Field Length = 8        |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
             Figure 16: Example Packet Properties Template
 At the collection point, packet records from the two measurement
 points are gathered and correlated by means of the packet ID.  The
 resulting delay Data Records are exported in a similar manner as the
 packet data.  One-Way Delay data is associated with Flow information
 by the commonPropertiesID field.  The OWD properties contain the
 Packet Pair ID (which is the packet ID of the two contributing packet

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 25] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 records), the timestamp of the packet passing the reference monitor
 point in order to reconstruct a time series, the calculated delay
 value, and the commonPropertiesID.
 In this example, using IPFIX to export the measurement data for each
 received packet, 38 bytes have to be transferred (sourceAddressV4=4,
 destinationAddressV4=4, classOfServiceV4=1, protocolIdentifier=1,
 sourceTransportPort=2, destinationTransportPort=2,
 observationTimeMilliseconds=8, digestHashValue=8, ipTotalLength=8).
 Without considering the IPFIX protocol overhead, a Flow of 1000
 packets produces 38000 bytes of measurement data.  Using the proposed
 optimization, each packet produces an export of only 28 bytes
 (observationTimeMilliseconds=8, digestHashValue=8, ipTotalLength=8,
 commonPropertiesID=4).  The export of the Flow information produces
 18 bytes (sourceAddressV4=4, destinationAddressV4=4,
 classOfServiceV4=1, protocolIdentifier=1, sourceTransportPort=2,
 destinationTransportPort=2, commonPropertiesID=4).  For a Flow of
 1000 packets, this sums to 28018 bytes.  This is a decrease of more
 than 26 percent.

A.3. Common Properties Withdrawal Message

 This section shows an example commonPropertiesID Withdrawal message.
 Figure 17 depicts the Options Template Record with the
 commonPropertiesID as unique scope field, and no non-scope fields.
   0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 3            |      Length = 14 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |       Template ID 259         |       Field Count = 1         |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |      Scope Field count = 1    |0|  commonPropertiesID 137     |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |  Scope 1 Field Length = 8     |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       Figure 17: Example Common Properties Withdrawal Template

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 26] RFC 5473 Reducing Redundancy March 2009

 Figure 18 shows the Option Data Record withdrawing commonPropertiesID
 N:
  0                   1                   2                   3
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |         Set ID = 259          |      Length = 12 octets       |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 +-                              N                              -+
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          Figure 18: Record Withdrawing commonPropertiesID N

Authors' Addresses

 Elisa Boschi
 Hitachi Europe
 c/o ETH Zurich
 Gloriastrasse 35
 8092 Zurich
 Switzerland
 Phone: +41 44 6327057
 EMail: elisa.boschi@hitachi-eu.com
 Lutz Mark
 Fraunhofer IFAM
 Wiener Str. 12
 28359 Bremen
 Germany
 Phone: +49 421 2246206
 EMail: lutz.mark@ifam.fraunhofer.de
 Benoit Claise
 Cisco Systems, Inc.
 De Kleetlaan 6a b1
 Diegem  1813
 Belgium
 Phone: +32 2 704 5622
 EMail: bclaise@cisco.com

Boschi, et al. Informational [Page 27]

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