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rfc:rfc5982

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Kobayashi, Ed. Request for Comments: 5982 NTT PF Lab. Category: Informational B. Claise, Ed. ISSN: 2070-1721 Cisco Systems, Inc.

                                                           August 2010
  IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Mediation: Problem Statement

Abstract

 Flow-based measurement is a popular method for various network
 monitoring usages.  The sharing of flow-based information for
 monitoring applications having different requirements raises some
 open issues in terms of measurement system scalability, flow-based
 measurement flexibility, and export reliability that IP Flow
 Information Export (IPFIX) Mediation may help resolve.  This document
 describes some problems related to flow-based measurement that
 network administrators have been facing, and then it describes IPFIX
 Mediation applicability examples along with the problems.

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/rfc5982.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2010 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
 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 1] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 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.

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ....................................................3
 2. Terminology and Definitions .....................................3
 3. IPFIX/PSAMP Documents Overview ..................................5
    3.1. IPFIX Documents Overview ...................................5
    3.2. PSAMP Documents Overview ...................................5
 4. Problem Statement ...............................................5
    4.1. Coping with IP Traffic Growth ..............................6
    4.2. Coping with Multipurpose Traffic Measurement ...............7
    4.3. Coping with Heterogeneous Environments .....................7
    4.4. Summary ....................................................7
 5. Mediation Applicability Examples ................................8
    5.1. Adjusting Flow Granularity .................................8
    5.2. Collecting Infrastructure ..................................8
    5.3. Correlation for Data Records ...............................9
    5.4. Time Composition ...........................................9
    5.5. Spatial Composition .......................................10
    5.6. Data Record Anonymization .................................11
    5.7. Data Retention ............................................11
    5.8. IPFIX Export from a Branch Office .........................12
    5.9. Distributing Data Record Types ............................13
    5.10. Flow-Based Sampling and Selection ........................14
    5.11. Interoperability between Legacy Protocols and IPFIX ......15
 6. IPFIX Mediators' Implementation-Specific Problems ..............15
    6.1. Loss of Original Exporter Information .....................15
    6.2. Loss of Base Time Information .............................16
    6.3. Transport Sessions Management .............................16
    6.4. Loss of Options Template Information ......................16
    6.5. Template ID Management ....................................17
    6.6. Consideration for Network Topology ........................18
    6.7. IPFIX Mediation Interpretation ............................18
    6.8. Consideration for Aggregation .............................19
 7. Summary and Conclusion .........................................20
 8. Security Considerations ........................................20
 9. Acknowledgements ...............................................21
 10. References ....................................................22
    10.1. Normative References .....................................22
    10.2. Informative References ...................................22
 Contributors ......................................................24

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 2] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

1. Introduction

 An advantage of flow-based measurement is that it allows monitoring
 large amounts of traffic observed at distributed Observation Points.
 While flow-based measurement can be applied to one of various
 purposes and applications, it is difficult for flow-based measurement
 to apply to multiple applications with very different requirements in
 parallel.  Network administrators need to adjust the parameters of
 the metering devices to fulfill the requirements of every single
 measurement application.  Such configurations are often not supported
 by the metering devices, either because of functional restrictions or
 because of limited computational and memory resources, which inhibit
 the metering of large amounts of traffic with the desired setup.  IP
 Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Mediation fills the gap between
 restricted metering capabilities and the requirements of measurement
 applications by introducing an intermediate device called the IPFIX
 Mediator.
 The IPFIX requirements defined in [RFC3917] mention examples of
 intermediate devices located between Exporters and Collectors, such
 as IPFIX proxies or concentrators.  But, there are no documents
 defining a generalized concept for such intermediate devices.  This
 document addresses that issue by defining IPFIX Mediation -- a
 generalized intermediate device concept for IPFIX -- and examining in
 detail the motivations behind its application.
 This document is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the
 terminology used in this document, Section 3 gives an IPFIX/Packet
 Sampling (PSAMP) document overview, Section 4 introduces general
 problems related to flow-based measurement, Section 5 describes some
 applicability examples where IPFIX Mediation would be beneficial,
 and, finally, Section 6 describes some problems an IPFIX Mediation
 implementation might face.

2. Terminology and Definitions

 The IPFIX-specific and PSAMP-specific terminology used in this
 document is defined in [RFC5101] and [RFC5476], respectively.  In
 this document, as in [RFC5101] and [RFC5476], the first letter of
 each IPFIX-specific and PSAMP-specific term is capitalized along with
 the IPFIX Mediation-specific terms defined here.
 In this document, we call "record stream" a stream of records
 carrying flow- or packet-based information.  The records may be
 encoded as IPFIX Data Records or in any other format.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 3] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 Original Exporter
    An Original Exporter is an IPFIX Device that hosts the Observation
    Points where the metered IP packets are observed.
 IPFIX Mediation
    IPFIX Mediation is the manipulation and conversion of a record
    stream for subsequent export using the IPFIX protocol.
 The following terms are used in this document to describe the
 architectural entities used by IPFIX Mediation.
 Intermediate Process
    An Intermediate Process takes a record stream as its input from
    Collecting Processes, Metering Processes, IPFIX File Readers,
    other Intermediate Processes, or other record sources; performs
    some transformations on this stream, based upon the content of
    each record, states maintained across multiple records, or other
    data sources; and passes the transformed record stream as its
    output to Exporting Processes, IPFIX File Writers, or other
    Intermediate Processes, in order to perform IPFIX Mediation.
    Typically, an Intermediate Process is hosted by an IPFIX Mediator.
    Alternatively, an Intermediate Process may be hosted by an
    Original Exporter.
 IPFIX Mediator
    An IPFIX Mediator is an IPFIX Device that provides IPFIX Mediation
    by receiving a record stream from some data sources, hosting one
    or more Intermediate Processes to transform that stream, and
    exporting the transformed record stream into IPFIX Messages via an
    Exporting Process.  In the common case, an IPFIX Mediator receives
    a record stream from a Collecting Process, but it could also
    receive a record stream from data sources not encoded using IPFIX,
    e.g., in the case of conversion from the NetFlow V9 protocol
    [RFC3954] to the IPFIX protocol.
    Note that the IPFIX Mediator is a generalization of the
    concentrator and proxy elements envisioned in the IPFIX
    requirements [RFC3917].  IPFIX Mediators running appropriate
    Intermediate Processes provide the functionality specified
    therein.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 4] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

3. IPFIX/PSAMP Documents Overview

 IPFIX Mediation can be applied to Flow- or packet-based information.
 The Flow-based information is encoded as IPFIX Flow Records by the
 IPFIX protocol, and the packet-based information is extracted by some
 packet selection techniques and then encoded as PSAMP Packet Reports
 by the PSAMP protocol.  Thus, this section describes relevant
 documents for both protocols.

3.1. 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 from an IPFIX Exporting Process to a
 Collecting Process is defined in [RFC5470], per the requirements
 defined in [RFC3917].  The IPFIX protocol [RFC5101] specifies how
 IPFIX Data Records and Templates are carried via a number of
 transport protocols 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 [RFC5102].  [RFC5815] specifies the
 IPFIX Management Information Base.  Finally, [RFC5472] describes what
 types of applications can use the IPFIX protocol and how they can use
 the information provided.  Furthermore, it shows how the IPFIX
 framework relates to other architectures and frameworks.  The storage
 of IPFIX Messages in a file is specified in [RFC5655].

3.2. PSAMP Documents Overview

 The framework for packet selection and reporting [RFC5474] enables
 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 and Filtering) standardized by PSAMP is described in
 [RFC5475].  The PSAMP protocol [RFC5476] specifies the export of
 packet information from a PSAMP Exporting Process to a Collector.
 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].  [PSAMP-MIB]
 describes the PSAMP Management Information Base.

4. Problem Statement

 Network administrators generally face the problems of measurement
 system scalability, Flow-based measurement flexibility, and export
 reliability, even if some techniques, such as Packet Sampling,
 Filtering, Data Records aggregation, and export replication, have
 already been developed.  The problems consist of adjusting some

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 5] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 parameters of metering devices to resources of the measurement system
 while fulfilling appropriate conditions: data accuracy, Flow
 granularity, and export reliability.  These conditions depend on two
 factors.
 o  Measurement system capacity: This consists of the bandwidth of the
    management network, the storage capacity, and the performances of
    the collecting devices and exporting devices.
 o  Application requirements: Different applications, such as traffic
    engineering, detecting traffic anomalies, and accounting, impose
    different Flow Record granularities, and data accuracies.
 The sustained growth of IP traffic has been overwhelming the
 capacities of measurement systems.  Furthermore, a large variety of
 applications (e.g., Quality-of-Service (QoS) measurement, traffic
 engineering, security monitoring) and the deployment of measurement
 systems in heterogeneous environments have been increasing the demand
 and complexity of IP traffic measurements.

4.1. Coping with IP Traffic Growth

 Enterprise or service provider networks already have multiple 10 Gb/s
 links, their total traffic exceeding 100 Gb/s.  In the near future,
 broadband users' traffic will increase by approximately 40% every
 year according to [TRAFGRW].  When administrators monitor IP traffic
 sustaining its growth at multiple Exporters, the amount of exported
 Flow Records from Exporters could exceed the ability of a single
 Collector.
 To deal with this problem, current data reduction techniques (Packet
 Sampling and Filtering in [RFC5475], and aggregation of measurement
 data) have been generally implemented on Exporters.  Note that Packet
 Sampling leads to potential loss of small Flows.  With both Packet
 Sampling and aggregation techniques, administrators might no longer
 be able to detect and investigate subtle traffic changes and
 anomalies, as this requires detailed Flow information.  With
 Filtering, only a subset of the Data Records are exported.
 Considering the potential drawbacks of Packet Sampling, Filtering,
 and Data Records aggregation, there is a need for a large-scale
 collecting infrastructure that does not rely on data reduction
 techniques.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 6] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

4.2. Coping with Multipurpose Traffic Measurement

 Different monitoring applications impose different requirements on
 the monitoring infrastructure.  Some of them require traffic
 monitoring at a Flow level while others need information about
 individual packets or just Flow aggregates.
 To fulfill these diverse requirements, an Exporter would need to
 perform various complex metering tasks in parallel, which is a
 problem due to limited resources.  Hence, it can be advantageous to
 run the Exporter with a much simpler setup and to perform appropriate
 post-processing of the exported Data Records at a later stage.

4.3. Coping with Heterogeneous Environments

 Network administrators use IPFIX Devices and PSAMP Devices from
 various vendors, various software versions, and various device types
 (router, switch, or probe) in a single network domain.  Even legacy
 flow export protocols are still deployed in current networks.  This
 heterogeneous environment leads to differences in Metering Process
 capabilities, Exporting Process capacity (export rate, cache memory,
 etc.), and data format.  For example, probes and switches cannot
 retrieve some derived packet properties from a routing table.
 To deal with this problem, the measurement system needs to mediate
 the differences.  However, equipping all collecting devices with this
 absorption function is difficult.

4.4. Summary

 Due to resource limitations of the measurement system, it is
 important to use traffic data reduction techniques as early as
 possible, e.g., at the Exporter.  However, this implementation is
 made difficult by the heterogeneous environment of exporting devices.
 On the other hand, keeping data accuracy and Flow granularity to meet
 the requirements of different monitoring applications requires a
 scalable and flexible collecting infrastructure.
 This implies that a new Mediation function is required in typical
 Exporter-Collector architectures.  Based on some applicability
 examples, the next section shows the limitation of the typical
 Exporter-Collector architecture model and the IPFIX Mediation
 benefits.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 7] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

5. Mediation Applicability Examples

5.1. Adjusting Flow Granularity

 The simplest set of Flow Keys is a fixed 5-tuple of protocol, source
 and destination IP addresses, and source and destination port
 numbers.  A shorter set of Flow Keys, such as a triple, a double, or
 a single property, (for example, network prefix, peering autonomous
 system number, or BGP Next-Hop fields), creates more aggregated Flow
 Records.  This is especially useful for measuring router-level
 traffic matrices in a core network domain and for easily adjusting
 the performance of Exporters and Collectors.
 Implementation analysis:
    Implementations for this case depend on where Flow granularity is
    adjusted.  More suitable implementations use configurable Metering
    Processes in Original Exporters.  The cache in the Metering
    Process can specify its own set of Flow Keys and extra fields.
    The Original Exporter thus generates Flow Records of the desired
    Flow granularity.
    In the case where a Metering Process hosting no ability to change
    the Flow Keys in Original Exporters creates Flow Records, or PSAMP
    Packet Reports, an IPFIX Mediator can aggregate Data Records based
    on a new set of Flow Keys.  Even in the case of a Metering Process
    hosting this ability, an IPFIX Mediator can further aggregate the
    Flow Records.

5.2. Collecting Infrastructure

 Increasing numbers of IPFIX Exporters, IP traffic growth, and the
 variety of treatments expected to be performed on the Data Records
 make it more and more difficult to implement all measurement
 applications within a single Collector.
 Implementation analysis:
    To increase the collecting (e.g., the bandwidth capacity) and
    processing capacity, distributed Collectors close to Exporters
    need to be deployed.  In such a case, those Collectors would
    become IPFIX Mediators, re-exporting Data Records on demand to
    centralized applications.  To cope with the variety of measurement
    applications, one possible implementation uses an Intermediate
    Process deciding to which Collector(s) each record is exported.
    More specific cases are described in Section 5.9.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 8] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

5.3. Correlation for Data Records

 The correlation amongst Data Records or between Data Records and
 metadata provides new metrics or information, including the
 following.
 o  One-to-one correlation between Data Records
  • One-way delay from the correlation of PSAMP Packet Reports from

different Exporters along a specific path. For example, one-

       way delay is calculated from the correlation of two PSAMP
       Packet Reports, including the packet digest and the arrival
       time at the Observation Point.  This scenario is described in
       Section 6.2.1.2 of [RFC5475].
  • Packet inter-arrival time from the correlation of sequential

PSAMP Packet Reports from an Exporter.

  • Treatment from the correlation of Data Records with common

properties, observed at incoming/outgoing interfaces. Examples

       are the rate-limiting ratio, the compression ratio, the
       optimization ratio, etc.
 o  Correlation amongst Data Records
    Average/maximum/minimum values from correlating multiple Data
    Records.  Examples are the average/maximum/minimum number of
    packets of the measured Flows, the average/maximum/minimum one-way
    delay, the average/maximum/minimum number of lost packets, etc.
 o  Correlation between Data Records and other metadata
    Examples are some BGP attributes associated with Data Records, as
    determined via routing table lookup.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an Intermediate
    Process located between the Metering Processes and Exporting
    Processes on the Original Exporter, or alternatively, a separate
    IPFIX Mediator located between the Original Exporters and IPFIX
    Collectors.

5.4. Time Composition

 Time composition is defined as the aggregation of consecutive Data
 Records with identical Flow Keys.  It leads to the same output as
 setting a longer active timeout on Original Exporters, with one

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 9] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 advantage: the creation of new metrics such as average, maximum, and
 minimum values from Flow Records with a shorter time interval enables
 administrators to keep track of changes that might have happened
 during the time interval.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an Intermediate
    Process located between the Metering Processes and Exporting
    Processes on the Original Exporter, or alternatively a separate
    IPFIX Mediator located between the Original Exporters and IPFIX
    Collectors.

5.5. Spatial Composition

 Spatial composition is defined as the aggregation of Data Records in
 a set of Observation Points within an Observation Domain, across
 multiple Observation Domains from a single Exporter, or even across
 multiple Exporters.  The spatial composition is divided into four
 types.
 o  Case 1: Spatial composition within one Observation Domain
    For example, to measure the traffic for a single logical interface
    in the case in which link aggregation [IEEE802.3ad] exists, Data
    Records metered at physical interfaces belonging to the same trunk
    can be merged.
 o  Case 2: Spatial composition across Observation Domains, but within
    a single Original Exporter
    For example, in the case in which link aggregation exists, Data
    Records metered at physical interfaces belonging to the same trunk
    grouping beyond the line card can be merged.
 o  Case 3: Spatial composition across Exporters
    Data Records metered within an administrative domain, such as the
    west area and east area of an ISP network, can be merged.
 o  Case 4: Spatial composition across administrative domains
    Data Records metered across administrative domains, such as across
    different customer networks or different ISP networks, can be
    merged.  For example, a unique Collector knows in which customer
    network an Exporter exists, and then works out the traffic data
    per customer based on the Exporter IP address.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 10] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for cases 1 and 2 uses an Intermediate
    Process located between the Metering Processes and Exporting
    Processes on the Original Exporter.  A separate IPFIX Mediator
    located between the Original Exporters and IPFIX Collectors is a
    valid solution for cases 1, 2, 3, and 4.

5.6. Data Record Anonymization

 IPFIX exports across administrative domains can be used to measure
 traffic for wide-area traffic engineering or to analyze Internet
 traffic trends, as described in the spatial composition across
 administrative domains in the previous subsection.  In such a case,
 administrators need to adhere to privacy protection policies and
 prevent access to confidential traffic measurements by other people.
 Typically, anonymization techniques enable the provision of traffic
 data to other people without violating these policies.
 Generally, anonymization modifies a data set to protect the identity
 of the people or entities described by the data set from being
 disclosed.  It also attempts to preserve sets of network traffic
 properties useful for a given analysis while ensuring the data cannot
 be traced back to the specific networks, hosts, or users generating
 the traffic.  For example, IP address anonymization is particularly
 important for avoiding the identification of users, hosts, and
 routers.  As another example, when an ISP provides traffic monitoring
 service to end customers, network administrators take care of
 anonymizing interface index fields that could disclose any
 information about the vendor or software version of the Exporters.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an anonymization
    function at the Original Exporter.  However, this increases the
    load on the Original Exporter.  A more flexible implementation
    uses a separate IPFIX Mediator between the Original Exporter and
    Collector.

5.7. Data Retention

 Data retention refers to the storage of traffic data by service
 providers and commercial organizations.  Legislative regulations
 often require that network operators retain both IP traffic data and
 call detail records, in wired and wireless networks, generated by end

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 11] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 users while using a service provider's services.  The traffic data is
 required for the purpose of the investigation, detection, and
 prosecution of serious crime, if necessary.  Data retention examples
 relevant to IP networks are the following:
 o  Internet telephony (includes every multimedia session associated
    with IP multimedia services)
 o  Internet email
 o  Internet access
 Data retention, for these services in particular, requires a
 measurement system with reliable export and huge storage, as the data
 must be available for a long period of time, typically at least six
 months.
 Implementation analysis:
    Regarding export reliability requirement, the most suitable
    implementation uses the Stream Control Transmission Protocol
    (SCTP) between the Original Exporter and Collector.  If an
    unreliable transport protocol such as UDP is used, a legacy
    exporting device exports Data Records to a nearby IPFIX Mediator
    through UDP, and then an IPFIX Mediator could reliably export them
    to the IPFIX Collector through SCTP.  If an unreliable transport
    protocol such as UDP is used and if there is no IPFIX Mediator,
    the legacy exporting device should duplicate the exports to
    several Collectors to lower the probability of losing Flow
    Records.  However, it might result in network congestion, unless
    dedicated export links are used.
    Regarding huge storage requirements, the collecting infrastructure
    is described in Section 5.2.

5.8. IPFIX Export from a Branch Office

 Generally, in large enterprise networks, Data Records from branch
 offices are gathered in a central office.  However, in the long-
 distance branch office case, the bandwidth for transporting IPFIX is
 limited.  Therefore, even if multiple Data Record types should be of
 interest to the Collector (e.g., IPFIX Flow Records in both
 directions, IPFIX Flow Records before and after WAN optimization
 techniques, performance metrics associated with the IPFIX Flow
 Records exported at regular intervals, etc.), the export bandwidth
 limitation is an important factor to pay attention to.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 12] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an IPFIX Mediator
    located in a branch office.  The IPFIX Mediator would aggregate
    and correlate Data Records to cope with the export bandwidth
    limitation.

5.9. Distributing Data Record Types

 Recently, several networks have shifted towards integrated networks,
 such as the pure IP and MPLS networks, which include IPv4, IPv6, and
 VPN traffic.  Data Record types (IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, and VPN) need to
 be analyzed separately and from different perspectives for different
 organizations.  A single Collector handling all Data Record types
 might become a bottleneck in the collecting infrastructure.  Data
 Records distributed based on their respective types can be exported
 to the appropriate Collector, resulting in load distribution amongst
 multiple Collectors.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses replication of the
    IPFIX Message in an Original Exporter for multiple IPFIX
    Collectors.  Each Collector then extracts the Data Record required
    by its own applications.  However, this replication increases the
    load of the Exporting Process and the waste of bandwidth between
    the Exporter and Collector.
    A more sophisticated implementation uses an Intermediate Process
    located between the Metering Processes and Exporting Processes in
    an Original Exporter.  The Intermediate Process determines to
    which Collector a Data Record is exported, depending on certain
    field values.  If an Original Exporter does not have this
    capability, it exports Data Records to a nearby separate IPFIX
    Mediator, and then the IPFIX Mediator could distribute them to the
    appropriate IPFIX Collectors.
    For example, in the case of distributing a specific customer's
    Data Records, an IPFIX Mediator needs to identify the customer
    networks.  The Route Distinguisher (RD), ingress interface,
    peering Autonomous System (AS) number, or BGP Next-Hop, or simply
    the network prefix may be evaluated to distinguish different
    customer networks.  In the following figure, the IPFIX Mediator
    reroutes Data Records on the basis of the RD value.  This system
    enables each customer's traffic to be inspected independently.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 13] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

                                            .---------.
                                            |Traffic  |
                                      .---->|Collector|<==>Customer#A
                                      |     |#1       |
                                      |     '---------'
                                   RD=100:1
 .----------.        .-----------.    |
 |IPFIX     |        |IPFIX      |----'     .---------.
 |Exporter#1|        |Mediator   | RD=100:2 |Traffic  |
 |          |------->|           |--------->|Collector|<==>Customer#B
 |          |        |           |          |#2       |
 |          |        |           |----.     '---------'
 '----------'        '-----------'    |
                                   RD=100:3
                                      |     .---------.
                                      |     |Traffic  |
                                      '---->|Collector|<==>Customer#C
                                            |#3       |
                                            '---------'
          Figure A.  Distributing Data Records to Collectors
                         Using IPFIX Mediator

5.10. Flow-Based Sampling and Selection

 Generally, the distribution of the number of packets per Flow seems
 to be heavy tailed.  Most types of Flow Records are likely to be
 small Flows consisting of a small number of packets.  The measurement
 system is overwhelmed with a huge amount of these small Flows.  If
 statistics information of small Flows is exported as merged data by
 applying a policy or threshold, the load on the Exporter is reduced.
 Furthermore, if the Flow distribution is known, exporting only a
 subset of the Data Records might be sufficient.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an Intermediate
    Process located between the Metering Processes and Exporting
    Processes on the Original Exporter, or alternatively a separate
    IPFIX Mediator located between the Original Exporters and IPFIX
    Collectors.  A set of IPFIX Mediation functions, such as
    Filtering, selecting, and aggregation, is used in the IPFIX
    Mediator.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 14] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

5.11. Interoperability between Legacy Protocols and IPFIX

 During the migration process from a legacy protocol such as NetFlow
 [RFC3954] to IPFIX, both NetFlow exporting devices and IPFIX
 Exporters are likely to coexist in the same network.  Operators need
 to continue measuring the traffic data from legacy exporting devices,
 even after introducing IPFIX Collectors.
 Implementation analysis:
    One possible implementation for this case uses an IPFIX Mediator
    that converts a legacy protocol to IPFIX.

6. IPFIX Mediators' Implementation-Specific Problems

6.1. Loss of Original Exporter Information

 Both the Exporter IP address indicated by the source IP address of
 the IPFIX Transport Session and the Observation Domain ID included in
 the IPFIX Message header are likely to be lost during IPFIX
 Mediation.  In some cases, an IPFIX Mediator might drop the
 information deliberately.  In general, however, the Collector must
 recognize the origin of the measurement information, such as the IP
 address of the Original Exporter, the Observation Domain ID, or even
 the Observation Point ID.  Note that, if an IPFIX Mediator cannot
 communicate the Original Exporter IP address, then the IPFIX
 Collector will wrongly deduce that the IP address of the IPFIX
 Mediator is that of the Original Exporter.
 In the following figure, a Collector can identify two IP addresses:
 192.0.2.3 (IPFIX Mediator) and 192.0.2.2 (Exporter#2), respectively.
 The Collector, however, needs to somehow recognize both Exporter#1
 and Exporter#2, which are the Original Exporters.  The IPFIX Mediator
 must be able to notify the Collector about the IP address of the
 Original Exporter.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 15] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

    .----------.          .--------.
    |IPFIX     |          |IPFIX   |
    |Exporter#1|--------->|Mediator|---+
    |          |          |        |   |
    '----------'          '--------'   |       .---------.
    IP:192.0.2.1        IP:192.0.2.3    '----->|IPFIX    |
    ODID:10             ODID:0                 |Collector|
                                       +------>|         |
    .----------.                       |       '---------'
    |IPFIX     |                       |
    |Exporter#2|-----------------------'
    |          |
    '----------'
    IP:192.0.2.2
    ODID:20
           Figure B.  Loss of Original Exporter Information

6.2. Loss of Base Time Information

 The Export Time field included in the IPFIX Message header represents
 a reference timestamp for Data Records.  Some IPFIX Information
 Elements, described in [RFC5102], carry delta timestamps that
 indicate the time difference from the value of the Export Time field.
 If the Data Records include any delta time fields and the IPFIX
 Mediator overwrites the Export Time field when sending IPFIX
 Messages, the delta time fields become meaningless and, because
 Collectors cannot recognize this situation, wrong time values are
 propagated.

6.3. Transport Sessions Management

 Maintaining relationships between the incoming Transport Sessions and
 the outgoing ones depends on the Mediator's implementation.  If an
 IPFIX Mediator relays multiple incoming Transport Sessions to a
 single outgoing Transport Session, and if the IPFIX Mediator shuts
 down its outgoing Transport Session, Data Records of the incoming
 Transport Sessions would not be relayed anymore.  In the case of
 resetting an incoming Transport Session, the behavior of the IPFIX
 Mediator needs to be specified.

6.4. Loss of Options Template Information

 In some cases, depending on the implementation of the IPFIX
 Mediators, the information reported in the Data Records defined by
 Options Templates could also be lost.  If, for example, the Sampling
 rate is not communicated from the Mediator to the Collector, the
 Collector would miscalculate the traffic volume.  This might lead to

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 16] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 crucial problems.  Even if an IPFIX Mediator were to simply relay
 received Data Records defined by Options Templates, the values of its
 scope fields could become meaningless in the content of a different
 Transport Session.  The minimal information to be communicated by an
 IPFIX Mediator must be specified.

6.5. Template ID Management

 The Template ID is unique on the basis of the Transport Session and
 Observation Domain ID.  If an IPFIX Mediator is not able to manage
 the relationships amongst the Template IDs and the incoming Transport
 Session information, and if the Template ID is used in the Options
 Template scope, IPFIX Mediators would, for example, relay wrong
 values in the scope field and in the Template Withdrawal Message.
 The Collector would thus not be able to interpret the Template ID in
 the Template Withdrawal Message and in the Options Template scope.
 As a consequence, there is a risk that the Collector would then shut
 down the IPFIX Transport Session.
 For example, an IPFIX Mediator must maintain the state of the
 incoming Transport Sessions in order to manage the Template ID on its
 outgoing Transport Session correctly.  Even if the Exporter Transport
 Session re-initializes, the IPFIX Mediator must manage the
 association of Template IDs in a specific Transport Session.  In the
 following figure, the IPFIX Mediator exports three Templates (256,
 257, and 258), received from Exporter#3, Exporter#2, and Exporter#1,
 respectively.  If Exporter#1 re-initializes, and the Template ID
 value 258 is now replaced with 256, the IPFIX Mediator must correctly
 manage the new mapping of (incoming Transport Session, Template ID)
 and (outgoing Transport Session, Template ID) without shutting down
 its outgoing Transport Session.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 17] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 .----------. OLD: Template ID 258
 |IPFIX     | NEW: Template ID 256
 |Exporter#1|----+
 |          |    |
 '----------'    X
 .----------.    |           .-----------.               .----------.
 |IPFIX     |    '---------->|           |               |          |
 |Exporter#2|--------------->|IPFIX      |-------------->|IPFIX     |
 |          |Template ID 257 |Mediator   |Template ID 258| Collector|
 '----------'    +---------->|           |Template ID 257|          |
 .----------.    |           '-----------'Template ID 256'----------'
 |IPFIX     |    |
 |Exporter#3|----'
 |          | Template ID 256
 '----------'
         Figure C.  Relaying from Multiple Transport Sessions
                     to a Single Transport Session

6.6. Consideration for Network Topology

 While IPFIX Mediation can be applied anywhere, caution should be
 taken as to how to aggregate the counters, as there is a potential
 risk of double counting.  For example, if three Exporters export
 PSAMP Packet Reports related to the same flow, the one-way delay can
 be calculated, while summing up the number of packets and bytes does
 not make sense.  Alternatively, if three Exporters export Flow
 Records entering an administrative domain, then the sum of the
 packets and bytes is a valid operation.  Therefore, the possible
 function to be applied to Flow Records must take into consideration
 the measurement topology.  The information such as the network
 topology, or at least the Observation Point and measurement
 direction, is required for IPFIX Mediation.

6.7. IPFIX Mediation Interpretation

 In some cases, the IPFIX Collector needs to recognize which specific
 function(s) IPFIX Mediation has executed on the Data Records.  The
 IPFIX Collector cannot distinguish between time composition and
 spatial composition, if the IPFIX Mediator does not export the
 applied function.  Some parameters related to the function also would
 need to be exported.  For example, in the case of time composition,
 the active timeout of original Flow Records is required to interpret
 the minimum/maximum counter correctly.  In the case of spatial
 composition, spatial area information on which Data Records is
 aggregated is required.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 18] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

6.8. Consideration for Aggregation

 Whether the aggregation is based on time or spatial composition,
 caution should be taken regarding how to aggregate non-key fields in
 IPFIX Mediation.  The IPFIX information model [RFC5102] specifies
 that the value of non-key fields, which are derived from fields of
 packets or from packet treatment and for which the value may change
 from packet to packet within a single Flow, is determined by the
 first packet observed for the corresponding Flow, unless the
 description of the Information Element explicitly specifies a
 different semantics.
 However, this simple rule might not be appropriate when aggregating
 Flow Records that have different values in a non-key field.  For
 example, if Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) information is
 to be exported, the following problem can be observed: if two Flows
 with identical Flow Key values are measured at different Observation
 Points, they may contain identical packets observed at different
 locations in the network and at different points in time.  On their
 way from the first to the second Observation Point, the DSCP and
 potentially some other packet fields may have changed.  Hence, if the
 Information Element ipDiffServCodePoint is included as a non-key
 field, it can be useful to include the DSCP value observed at either
 the first or the second Observation Point in the resulting Flow
 Record, depending on the application.
 Other potential solutions include removing the Information Element
 ipDiffServCodePoint from the Data Record when re-exporting the
 aggregate Flow Record, changing the Information Element
 ipDiffServCodePoint from a non-key field to a Flow Key when
 re-exporting the aggregated Flow Record, or assigning a non-valid
 value for the Information Element to express to the Collector that
 this Information Element is meaningless.
 If Packet Sampling or Filtering is applied, the IPFIX Mediator must
 report an adjusted PSAMP Configured Selection Fraction when
 aggregating IPFIX Flow Records with different Sampling rates.
 Finally, special care must be taken when aggregating Flow Records
 resulting from different Sampling techniques such as Systematic
 Count-Based Sampling and Random n-out-of-N Sampling, for example.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 19] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

7. Summary and Conclusion

 This document describes the problems that network administrators have
 been facing, the applicability of IPFIX Mediation to these problems,
 and the problems related to the implementation of IPFIX Mediators.
 To assist the operations of the Exporters and Collectors, this
 document demonstrates that there exist various IPFIX Mediation
 functions from which the administrators may select.
 However, there are still some open issues with the use of IPFIX
 Mediators.  These issues stem from the fact that no standards
 regarding IPFIX Mediation have been set.  In particular, the minimum
 information that should be communicated between Original Exporters
 and Collectors, the mapping between different IPFIX Transport
 Sessions, and the internal components of IPFIX Mediators should be
 standardized.

8. Security Considerations

 A flow-based measurement system must prevent potential security
 threats: the disclosure of confidential traffic data, injection of
 incorrect data, and unauthorized access to traffic data.  These
 security threats of the IPFIX protocol are covered by the Security
 Considerations section in [RFC5101] and are still valid for IPFIX
 Mediators.
 A measurement system must also prevent the following security threats
 related to IPFIX Mediation:
 o  Attacks against an IPFIX Mediator
    IPFIX Mediators can be considered as a prime target for attacks,
    as an alternative to IPFIX Exporters and Collectors.  IPFIX
    Proxies or Masquerading Proxies need to prevent unauthorized
    access or denial-of-service (DoS) attacks from untrusted public
    networks.
 o  Man-in-the-middle attack by untrusted IPFIX Mediator
    The Exporter-Mediator-Collector structure model could be misused
    for a man-in-the-middle attack.
 o  Configuration on IPFIX Mediation
    An accidental misconfiguration and unauthorized access to
    configuration data could lead to the crucial problem of disclosure
    of confidential traffic data.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 20] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 o  Unintentional exposure of end-user information
    The probability of collecting fine-grained information on one
    arbitrary end user increases with the number of Observation
    Points.  An IPFIX Mediator facing such a situation may have to
    apply appropriate functions (e.g., anonymization or aggregation)
    to the Data Records it produces.
 o  Multiple-tenancy policy on an IPFIX Mediator
    An IPFIX Mediator handling traffic data from multiple tenants or
    customers needs to protect those tenants or customers from one
    another's traffic data.  For example, an IPFIX Mediator needs to
    identify the customer's identifier, e.g., ingress interface index,
    network address range, VLAN ID, Media Access Control (MAC)
    address, etc., when feeding the customer's traffic data to a
    customer's own dedicated IPFIX Collector.  If the IPFIX Mediator
    cannot identify each customer's traffic data, it may need to drop
    the Data Records.  In addition, another technique to keep track of
    a customer's identifier may be required when customer sites are
    movable, e.g., in the case of a virtual machine moving to another
    physical machine.
 o  Confidentiality protection via an IPFIX Mediator
    To ensure security of Data Records in transit, transport of Data
    Records should be confidential and integrity-protected, e.g., by
    using Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC5246] or Datagram
    Transport Layer Security (DTLS) [RFC4347].  However, an IPFIX
    Collector cannot know whether received Data Records are
    transported as encrypted data between an Original Exporter and an
    IPFIX Mediator.  If this information is required on the IPFIX
    Collector, it must be encoded in the IPFIX Mediator.
 o  Certification for an Original Exporter
    An IPFIX Collector communicating via an IPFIX Mediator cannot
    verify the identity of an Original Exporter directly.  If an
    Original Exporter and an IPFIX Collector are located in different
    administrative domains, an IPFIX Collector cannot trust its Data
    Records.  If this information is required on the IPFIX Collector,
    it must be encoded in the IPFIX Mediator.

9. Acknowledgements

 We would like to thank the following persons: Gerhard Muenz for
 thorough, detailed review and significant contributions regarding the
 improvement of whole sections; Keisuke Ishibashi for contributions

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 21] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 during the initial phases of the document; Brian Trammell for
 contributions regarding the improvement of the Terminology and
 Definitions section; and Nevil Brownlee, Juergen Schoenwaelder, and
 Motonori Shindo for their technical reviews and feedback.

10. References

10.1. Normative References

 [RFC5101]      Claise, B., Ed., "Specification of the IP Flow
                Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange
                of IP Traffic Flow Information", RFC 5101,
                January 2008.
 [RFC5476]      Claise, B., Ed., Johnson, A., and J. Quittek, "Packet
                Sampling (PSAMP) Protocol Specifications", RFC 5476,
                March 2009.

10.2. Informative References

 [IEEE802.3ad]  IEEE Computer Society, "Link Aggregation", IEEE
                Std 802.3ad-2000, March 2000.
 [PSAMP-MIB]    Dietz, T., Ed., Claise, B., and J. Quittek,
                "Definitions of Managed Objects for Packet Sampling",
                Work in Progress, July 2010.
 [RFC3917]      Quittek, J., Zseby, T., Claise, B., and S. Zander,
                "Requirements for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)",
                RFC 3917, October 2004.
 [RFC3954]      Claise, B., Ed., "Cisco Systems NetFlow Services
                Export Version 9", RFC 3954, October 2004.
 [RFC4347]      Rescorla, E. and N. Modadugu, "Datagram Transport
                Layer Security", RFC 4347, April 2006.
 [RFC5102]      Quittek, J., Bryant, S., Claise, B., Aitken, P., and
                J. Meyer, "Information Model for IP Flow Information
                Export", RFC 5102, January 2008.
 [RFC5246]      Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer
                Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August
                2008.
 [RFC5470]      Sadasivan, G., Brownlee, N., Claise, B., and J.
                Quittek, "Architecture for IP Flow Information
                Export", RFC 5470, March 2009.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 22] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

 [RFC5472]      Zseby, T., Boschi, E., Brownlee, N., and B. Claise,
                "IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Applicability",
                RFC 5472, March 2009.
 [RFC5474]      Duffield, N., Ed., Chiou, D., Claise, B., Greenberg,
                A., Grossglauser, M., and J. Rexford, "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.
 [RFC5655]      Trammell, B., Boschi, E., Mark, L., Zseby, T., and A.
                Wagner, "Specification of the IP Flow Information
                Export (IPFIX) File Format", RFC 5655, October 2009.
 [RFC5815]      Dietz, T., Ed., Kobayashi, A., Claise, B., and G.
                Muenz, "Definitions of Managed Objects for IP Flow
                Information Export", RFC 5815, April 2010.
 [TRAFGRW]      Cho, K., Fukuda, K., Esaki, H., and A. Kato, "The
                Impact and Implications of the Growth in Residential
                User-to-User Traffic", SIGCOMM2006, pp. 207-218, Pisa,
                Italy, September 2006.

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 23] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

Contributors

 Haruhiko Nishida
 NTT Information Sharing Platform Laboratories
 3-9-11 Midori-cho
 Musashino-shi, Tokyo  180-8585
 Japan
 Phone: +81-422-59-3978
 EMail: nishida.haruhiko@lab.ntt.co.jp
 Christoph Sommer
 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
 Department of Computer Science 7
 Martensstr. 3
 Erlangen  91058
 Germany
 Phone: +49 9131 85-27993
 EMail: christoph.sommer@informatik.uni-erlangen.de
 URI:   http://www7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~sommer/
 Falko Dressler
 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
 Department of Computer Science 7
 Martensstr. 3
 Erlangen  91058
 Germany
 Phone: +49 9131 85-27914
 EMail: dressler@informatik.uni-erlangen.de
 URI:   http://www7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~dressler/
 Stephan Emile
 France Telecom
 2 Avenue Pierre Marzin
 Lannion, F-22307
 France
 Fax:   +33 2 96 05 18 52
 EMail: emile.stephan@orange-ftgroup.com

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 24] RFC 5982 IPFIX Mediation: Problem Statement August 2010

Authors' Addresses

 Atsushi Kobayashi (editor)
 NTT Information Sharing Platform Laboratories
 3-9-11 Midori-cho
 Musashino-shi, Tokyo  180-8585
 Japan
 Phone: +81-422-59-3978
 EMail: akoba@nttv6.net
 Benoit Claise (editor)
 Cisco Systems, Inc.
 De Kleetlaan 6a b1
 Diegem  1831
 Belgium
 Phone: +32 2 704 5622
 EMail: bclaise@cisco.com

Kobayashi and Claise Informational [Page 25]

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