One document matched: draft-ietf-ipfix-exporting-type-01.xml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM "rfc2629.dtd" [
<!ENTITY rfc3917 PUBLIC "" "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3917.xml">
<!ENTITY rfc5101 PUBLIC "" "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5101.xml">
<!ENTITY rfc5102 PUBLIC "" "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5102.xml">
<!ENTITY rfc5103 PUBLIC "" "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5103.xml">
<!ENTITY draftIpfixArch PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.ietf-ipfix-arch.xml'>
<!ENTITY draftPsampInfo PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.ietf-psamp-info.xml'>
<!ENTITY rfc2119 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml'>
<!ENTITY rfc2434 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2434.xml'>
] >
<rfc ipr="full3978" category="std" docName="draft-ietf-ipfix-exporting-type-01.txt">
<?rfc compact="yes"?>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>
<?rfc toc="yes"?>
<?rfc symrefs="yes"?>

<front>
 <title abbrev="IPFIX Type Information">
   Exporting Type Information for IPFIX Information Elements
 </title>

 <author initials="E." surname="Boschi" fullname="Elisa Boschi">
    <organization abbrev="Hitachi Europe">
    Hitachi Europe
    </organization>
    <address>
      <postal>
        <street>c/o ETH Zurich</street>
        <street>Gloriastrasse 35</street>
        <city>8092 Zurich</city>
        <country>Switzerland</country>
      </postal>
      <phone>+41 44 6327057</phone>
      <email>elisa.boschi@hitachi-eu.com</email>
    </address>
  </author>
 <author initials="B." surname="Trammell" fullname="Brian H. Trammell">
   <organization abbrev="CERT/NetSA">
     CERT Network Situational Awareness
   </organization>
   <address>
     <postal>
       <street>Software Engineering Institute</street>
       <street>4500 Fifth Avenue</street>
       <city>Pittsburgh</city> <region>Pennsylvania</region>
       <code>15213</code>
       <country>United States</country>
     </postal>
     <phone>+1 412 268 9748</phone>
     <email>bht@cert.org</email>
   </address> 
 </author>
 <author initials="L." surname="Mark" fullname="Lutz Mark">
   <organization abbrev="Fraunhofer FOKUS">
     Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
   </organization>
   <address>
     <postal>
       <street>Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31</street>
       <city>10589 Berlin</city>
       <country>Germany</country>
     </postal>
     <phone>+49 30 3463 7306</phone>
     <email>lutz.mark@fokus.fraunhofer.de</email>
   </address>
 </author>
 <author initials="T." surname="Zseby" fullname="Tanja Zseby">
   <organization abbrev="Fraunhofer FOKUS">
     Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
   </organization>
   <address>
     <postal>
       <street>Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31</street>
       <city>10589 Berlin</city>
       <country>Germany</country>
     </postal>
     <phone>+49 30 3463 7153</phone>
     <email>tanja.zseby@fokus.fraunhofer.de</email>
   </address>
 </author>
 <date month="February" day="25" year="2008"></date>
 <area>Operations</area>
 <workgroup>IPFIX Working Group</workgroup>
 <abstract> 
   <t>This document describes an extension to IPFIX to allow the encoding of
   IPFIX Information Model properties within an IPFIX Message stream, to
   allow the export of extended type information for enterprise-specific
   Information Elements. This format is designed to facilitate
   interoperability and reusability among a wide variety of applications and
   tools.</t>
 </abstract>
</front>

<middle>

 <section title="Introduction">

   <t>The IPFIX protocol specification allows the creation of
   enterprise-specific Information Elements to easily extend the protocol to
   meet requirements which aren't covered by the existing Information Model.
   However, IPFIX Templates provide only the ability to export the size of
   the fields defined by these Information Elements; there is no mechanism 
   to provide full type information for these Information Elements as
   is defined for the Information Elements in the IPFIX Information 
   Model.</t>

   <t>This limits the interoperability of enterprise-specific Information
   Elements. It is not possible to use analysis tools on IPFIX records
   containing these partially defined Information Elements that have not been
   developed with a priori knowledge of their types, since such tools will
   not be able to decode them; these tools can only treat and store them as
   opaque octet arrays. However, if richer information is available,
   additional operations such as efficient storage, display, and limited
   analysis of records containing enterprise-specific Information Elements
   become possible, even for Collecting Processes that had not been
   specifically developed to understand them.</t>

   <t>This document proposes a mechanism to encode the full set of properties
   available for the definition of Information Elements within the IPFIX
   Information Model inline within an IPFIX Message stream using IPFIX
   Options. This mechanism may be used to fully define type information for
   Information Elements used within a message stream, without resort to an
   external reference or reliance on out-of-band configuration.</t>

   <t>Note that the solution described in this draft is only for providing
   interoperability for enterprise specific information elements that are not
   yet standardized. The solution introduces overhead and does not lead to
   real interoperability as provided by standards. Therefore we highly
   recommend to standardize all new information elements by registering them
   with IANA. Standardization is straightforward. The type information that
   needs to be specified in order to support the proposed solution provides a
   perfect basis for the description required for standardizing the
   information element. </t>

   <t>We assume that the proposed solution is mainly used in the following two
   situations: a) for information elements for very specific solutions or in
   very specific environments for which a standardization might not seem
   necessary because only few users are using it or b) temporarily for new
   information elements before they are standardized or to first investigate
   whether they become popular enough to become standardized. </t>

   <t>It might happen that information elements previously described by the
   proposed exporting type information later become a standard information
   element. In some environments old and new version of the information
   element can coexist. A translation between information elements expressed
   by the described solution and standardized information elements is not
   necessary. Collectors will act in accordance to their capabilities and
   ignore messages that they do not support.</t>

   <section title="IPFIX Documents Overview" anchor="intro-docs">
     <t><xref target="RFC5101">"Specification of the IPFIX
     Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information"</xref>
     (informally, the IPFIX Protocol document) and its associated documents
     define the IPFIX Protocol, which provides network engineers and
     administrators with access to IP traffic flow information.</t>

     <t><xref target="I-D.ietf-ipfix-arch">"Architecture for IP Flow
     Information Export"</xref> (the IPFIX Architecture document) defines
     the architecture for the export of measured IP flow information out of
     an IPFIX Exporting Process to an IPFIX Collecting Process, and the
     basic terminology used to describe the elements of this architecture,
     per the requirements defined in <xref target="RFC3917">"Requirements
     for IP Flow Information Export"</xref>. The IPFIX Protocol document
     <xref target="RFC5101"></xref> then covers the details of the method for
     transporting IPFIX Data Records and Templates via a congestion-aware
     transport protocol from an IPFIX Exporting Process to an IPFIX
     Collecting Process.</t>

     <t><xref target="RFC5102">"Information Model for IP Flow
     Information Export"</xref> (informally, the IPFIX Information Model
     document) describes the Information Elements used by IPFIX, including
     details on Information Element naming, numbering, and data type
     encoding.</t>

     <t>This document references the Protocol and Architecture documents for
     terminology and extends the IPFIX Information Model to provide new
     Information Elements for the representation of Information Element
     properties.</t>
   </section>

</section>

<section title="Terminology">

   <t>Terms used in this document that are defined in the Terminology section
   of the <xref target="RFC5101">IPFIX Protocol</xref>
   document are to be interpreted as defined there.</t>

   <t>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 <xref target="RFC2119">RFC
   2119</xref>.</t>

</section>

<section title="Type Information Export" anchor="self-description-IEs">

     <t>This section describes the mechanism used to encode Information
     Element type information within an IPFIX Message stream. This mechanism
     consists of an Options Template Record used to define Information
     Element type records, and a set of Information Elements required by
     these type records. We first specify the necessary Information Elements,
     followed by the Information Element Type Options Template itself. Note
     that Information Element type records require one Information Element,
     informationElementId, that is defined in the <xref target="I-D.ietf-psamp-info">PSAMP Information Model</xref>.</t>

<section title="informationElementDataType">
	<list style="hanging">
	  <t hangText="Description: ">
 	A description of the storage type of an IPFIX information element. These
   correspond to the abstract data types defined in section 3.1 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX Information Model</xref>; see that
   section for more information on the types described below. This field may
   take the following values:
 	  <texttable>
 	    <ttcol align="left">Value</ttcol>
	      <ttcol align="left">Description</ttcol>
	      <c>0x00</c><c>octetArray</c>
	      <c>0x01</c><c>unsigned8</c>
	      <c>0x02</c><c>unsigned16</c>
	      <c>0x03</c><c>unsigned32</c>
	      <c>0x04</c><c>unsigned64</c>
	      <c>0x05</c><c>signed8</c>
	      <c>0x06</c><c>signed16</c>
	      <c>0x07</c><c>signed32</c>
	      <c>0x08</c><c>signed64</c>
	      <c>0x09</c><c>float32</c>
	      <c>0x0A</c><c>float64</c>
	      <c>0x0B</c><c>boolean</c>
	      <c>0x0C</c><c>macAddress</c>
	      <c>0x0D</c><c>string</c>
	      <c>0x0E</c><c>dateTimeSeconds</c>
	      <c>0x0F</c><c>dateTimeMilliseconds</c>
	      <c>0x10</c><c>dateTimeMicroseconds</c>
	      <c>0x11</c><c>dateTimeNanoseconds</c>
	      <c>0x12</c><c>ipv4Address</c>
	      <c>0x13</c><c>ipv6Address</c>
	    </texttable>
       These types are registered in the IANA IPFIX Information Element Data 
       Type subregistry. This subregistry is intended to assign numbers for type names, 
       not to provide a mechanism for adding data types to the IPFIX Protocol, 
       and as such requires a <xref target="RFC2434">Standards Action</xref> to modify.
 	</t>
 	<t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned8</t>
 	<t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD1</t>
	  <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
	  <t hangText="Reference: ">
	    Section 3.1 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX Information Model</xref>
 	</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementDescription">
 <list style="hanging">
   <t hangText="Description: ">
   A string containing a human-readable description of an Information
   Element.
   </t>
   <t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">string</t>
   <t hangText="Data Type Semantics: ">identifier</t>
   <t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD2</t>
   <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementName">
 <list style="hanging">
   <t hangText="Description: ">
   A string containing the name of an Information Element.
   </t>
   <t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">string</t>
   <t hangText="Data Type Semantics: ">identifier</t>
   <t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD3</t>
   <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementRangeBegin">
 <list style="hanging">
   <t hangText="Description: ">
   Contains the inclusive low end of the range of acceptable values for an
   Information Element. Not valid and SHOULD be ignored by a Collecting
   Process unless informationElementRangeEnd is also available for the same
   Information Element.
   </t>
   <t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned64</t>
   <t hangText="Data Type Semantics: ">quantity</t>
   <t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD4</t>
   <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementRangeEnd">
 <list style="hanging">
   <t hangText="Description: ">
   Contains the inclusive high end of the range of acceptable values for an
   Information Element. Not valid and SHOULD be ignored by a Collecting
   Process unless informationElementRangeBegin is also available for the same
   Information Element.
   </t>
   <t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned64</t>
   <t hangText="Data Type Semantics: ">quantity</t>
   <t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD5</t>
   <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementSemantics">
	<list style="hanging">
	  <t hangText="Description: ">
 	A description of the semantics of an IPFIX information element. These
   correspond to the data type semantics defined in section 3.2 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX Information Model</xref>; see that
   section for more information on the types described below. This field may
   take the following values; the special value 0x00 (none) is used to note
   that no semantics apply to the field; it cannot be manipulated by a
   Collecting Process or File Reader that does not understand it a priori.
 	  <texttable>
       <ttcol align="left">Value</ttcol>
       <ttcol align="left">Description</ttcol>
 	    <c>0x00</c><c>none</c>
 	    <c>0x01</c><c>quantity</c>
 	    <c>0x02</c><c>totalCounter</c>
 	    <c>0x03</c><c>deltaCounter</c>
 	    <c>0x04</c><c>identifier</c>
 	    <c>0x05</c><c>flags</c>
 	  </texttable>
     These semantics are registered in the IANA IPFIX Information Element 
     Semantics subregistry. This subregistry is intended to assign numbers for 
     semantics names, not to provide a mechanism for adding semantics to the 
     IPFIX Protocol, and as such requires a <xref target="RFC2434">Standards Action</xref> to modify.
   </t>
 	<t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned8</t>
 	<t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD6</t>
 	<t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
	  <t hangText="Reference: ">
	    Section 3.2 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX Information Model</xref>
 	</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="informationElementUnits">
	<list style="hanging">
	  <t hangText="Description: ">
 	A description of the units of an IPFIX Information Element. These
   correspond to the units implicitly defined in the Information Element
   definitions in section 5 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX
   Information Model</xref>; see that section for more information on the
   types described below. This field may take the following values; the
   special value 0x00 (none) is used to note that the field is unitless.
 	  <texttable>
       <ttcol align="left">Value</ttcol>
       <ttcol align="left">Name</ttcol>
       <ttcol align="left">Notes</ttcol>
 	    <c>0x0000</c><c>none</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0001</c><c>bits</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0002</c><c>octets</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0003</c><c>packets</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0004</c><c>flows</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0005</c><c>seconds</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0006</c><c>milliseconds</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0007</c><c>microseconds</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0008</c><c>nanoseconds</c><c></c>
 	    <c>0x0009</c><c>4-octet words</c><c>for IPv4 header length</c>
 	    <c>0x000A</c><c>messages</c><c>for reliability reporting</c>
 	    <c>0x000B</c><c>hops</c><c>for TTL</c>
 	    <c>0x000C</c><c>entries</c><c>for MPLS label stack</c>
 	  </texttable>
     These types are registered in the IANA IPFIX Information Element Units
     subregistry; new types may be added on a <xref target="RFC2434">First
     Come First Served</xref> basis.
   </t>
 	<t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned16</t>
 	<t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD7</t>
 	<t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
	  <t hangText="Reference: ">
	    Section 5 of the <xref target="RFC5102">IPFIX Information Model</xref>
 	</t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="privateEnterpriseNumber">
 <list style="hanging">
   <t hangText="Description: ">
   A private enterprise number used to scope an informationElementID, as
   would appear in an IPFIX Template Record. This element can be used to
   scope properties to a specific Information Element. If
   the Enterprise ID bit of the corresponding Information Element is cleared
   (has the value 0), this IE should be set to 0. The presence of a non-zero
   value in this IE implies that the Enterprise ID bit of the corresponding
   Information Element is set (has the value 1).
   </t>
   <t hangText="Abstract Data Type: ">unsigned32</t>
   <t hangText="Data Type Semantics: ">identifier</t>
   <t hangText="ElementId: ">TBD8</t>
   <t hangText="Status: ">Proposed</t>
   <t hangText="Reference: ">
     Section 3.4.1 of the <xref target="RFC5101">IPFIX Protocol</xref>
   </t>
 </list>
</section>

<section title="Information Element Type Options Template">

  <t>The Information Element Type Options Template attaches type information
  to Information Elements used within Template Records, as scoped to an
  Observation Domain within a Transport Session. This provides a mechanism for
  representing an IPFIX Information Model inline within an IPFIX Message
  stream. Data Records described by this template are referred to as
  Information Element type records.</t>

  <t>In deployments in which interoperability across vendor implementations of
  IPFIX is important, an Exporting Process exporting data using Templates
  containing enterprise-specific Information Elements SHOULD export an
  Information Element type record for each enterprise-specific Information
  Element it exports. Collecting Processes MAY use these type records to
  improve handling of unknown enterprise-specific Information Elements.
  Exporting Processes using enterprise-specific Information Elements to
  implement proprietary features MAY omit type records for those Information
  Elements.</t>

  <t>Information Element type records MUST be handled by Collecting Processes
  as scoped to the Transport Session in which they are sent; this facility is
  not intended to provide a method for the permanent definition of Information
  Elements.</t>

  <t>Similarly, for security reasons, type information for a given Information
  Element MUST NOT be re-defined by Information Element type records, and a
  Collecting Process MUST NOT allow an Information Element type record to
  replace its own internal definition of an Information Element. Information
  Element type records SHOULD NOT be duplicated within a Transport Session,
  but once an Information Element type record has been exported for a given
  Information Element within a given Transport Session, all subsequent type
  records for that Information Element MUST be identical. Conflicting
  semantic or type information MUST be ignored by a Collecting Process.</t>

  <t>The template SHOULD contain the following Information Elements as defined
  in the <xref target="I-D.ietf-psamp-info">PSAMP Information Model</xref> and
  in this document, above:

   <texttable>
     <ttcol align="left">IE</ttcol>
     <ttcol align="left">Description</ttcol>
     <c>informationElementID</c>
     <c>
       The Information Element identifier of the Information Element within
       the specified Template this record describes. This Information Element
       MUST be defined as a Scope Field. See the <xref target="I-D.ietf-psamp-info">PSAMP Information Model</xref> for a
       definition of this field.
     </c>
     <c>privateEnterpriseNumber</c>
     <c>
	    The Private Enterprise number of the Information Element within the
       specified Template this record describes. This Information Element
       MUST be defined as a Scope Field.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementDataType</c>
     <c>
	       The storage type of the specified Information Element.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementSemantics</c>
     <c>
	       The semantic type of the specified Information Element.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementUnits</c>
     <c>
          The units of the specified Information Element. This element MAY be
          omitted if the Information Element is a unitless quantity, or a not
          a quantity or counter.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementRangeBegin</c>
     <c>
          The low end of the range of acceptable values for the specified
          Information Element. This element MAY be omitted if the Information
          Element's acceptable range is defined by its data type.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementRangeEnd</c>
     <c>
         The high end of the range of acceptable values for the specified
         Information Element. This element MAY be omitted if the Information
         Element's acceptable range is defined by its data type.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementName</c>
     <c>
	       The name of the specified Information Element.
     </c>
     <c>informationElementDescription</c>
     <c>
	       A human readable description of the specified Information Element.
          This element MAY be omitted in the interest of export efficiency.
     </c>
   </texttable>
   </t>
 </section>
 
 <section title="Data Type and Semantics Restrictions">

    <t>Note that the informationElementSemantics values are primarily intended
    to differentiate semantic interpretation of numeric values, and that not
    all combinations of the informationElementDataType and
    informationElementSemantics Information Elements are valid; e.g., a
    counter cannot be encoded as an IPv4 address. Any
    informationElementSemantics value is valid for unsigned
    informationElementDataType values ("unsigned8", "unsigned16",
    "unsigned32", or "unsigned64"). Any informationElementSemantics value
    except flags is valid for signed informationElementDataType values
    ("signed8", "signed16", "signed32", or "signed64"). Any
    informationElementSemantics value except "identifier" or "flags" is valid
    for floating-point informationElementDataType values ("float32" or
    "float64"). Only the informationElementSemantics value "none" is valid for
    all other other informationElementDataType values ("octetArray",
    "boolean", "macAddress", "string", "dateTimeSeconds",
    "dateTimeMilliseconds", "dateTimeMicroseconds", "dateTimeNanoseconds",
    "ipv4Address", or "ipv6Address").</t>

    <t>Information Element type records containing invalid combinations of
    informationElementSemantics and informationElementDataType MUST NOT be
    sent by Exporting Processes, and MUST be ignored by Collecting
    Processes.</t>

    <t>Future standards actions that modify the Information Element Data Type
    subregistry or the Information Element Semantics subregistry should
    contain a Data Type and Semantics Restrictions sections such as this one
    to define allowable combinations of type and semantics information.</t>

 </section>
</section>

<section title="Security Considerations">
   <t>The same security considerations as for the
   <xref target="RFC5101">IPFIX Protocol</xref>
   apply.</t>
 </section>

 <section title="IANA Considerations">

   <t>This document specifies the creation of several new IPFIX Information
   Elements in the IPFIX Information Element registry located at
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipfix, as defined in section 3 above. IANA
   has assigned the following Information Element numbers for their
   respective Information Elements as specified below:</t>

   <list style="symbols">

       <t>Information Element Number TBD1 for the informationElementDataType
       Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD2 for the
       informationElementDescription Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD3 for the informationElementName
       Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD4 for the
       informationElementRangeBegin Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD5 for the informationElementRangeEnd
       Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD6 for the informationElementSemantics
       Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD7 for the informationElementUnits
       Information Element</t>

       <t>Information Element Number TBD8 for the privateEnterpriseNumber
       Information Element</t>

       <t>[NOTE for IANA: The text TBD1, TBD2, TBD3, TBD4, TBD5, TBD6, TBD7,
       and TBD8 should be replaced with the respective assigned Information
       Element numbers where they appear in this document.]</t>
   </list>

   <t>IANA has created an Information Element Data Type subregistry for the values 
   defined for the informationElementSemantics Information Element. Entries may 
   be added to this subregistry subject to a <xref target="RFC2434">Standards Action</xref>.</t>

   <t>[NOTE for IANA: Please create a new Information Element
   Data Type subregistry as specified in the paragraph above,
   with values taken from section 3.1 of this document.]</t>

   <t>IANA has created an Information Element Semantics subregistry for the
   values defined for the informationElementSemantics Information Element.
   Entries may be added to this subregistry subject to a <xref target="RFC2434">Standards Action</xref>.</t>

   <t>[NOTE for IANA: Please create a new Information Element
   Semantics subregistry as specified in the paragraph above,
   with values taken from section 3.6 of this document.]</t>

   <t>IANA has created an Information Element Units subregistry for the
   values defined for the informationElementUnits Information Element.
   Entries may be added to this subregistry on an <xref target="RFC2434">Expert Review</xref> basis.</t>

   <t>[NOTE for IANA: Please create a new Information Element
   Units subregistry as specified in the paragraph above,
   with values taken from section 3.7 of this document.]</t>

 </section>

 <section title="Acknowledgements">
   <t>Thanks to Paul Aitken for the detailed technical review, and to David
   Moore for first raising this issue to the IPFIX mailing list.</t>
 </section>
</middle>

<back>
 <references title="Normative References">
   &rfc5101;
   &rfc5102;
   &draftPsampInfo;
   </references>
 <references title="Informative References">
   &rfc3917;
   &draftIpfixArch;
   &rfc5103;
   &rfc2119;
   &rfc2434;
 </references>
 <section title="Examples">
   <t>The following example illustrates how the type information
   extension mechanism defined in this document may be used to
   describe the semantics of enterprise-specific Information
   Elements. The Information Elements used in this example are as
   follows:</t>
   <list style="symbols">
     <t>initialTCPFlags, CERT (PEN 6871) private IE 14, 1 octet, the
     TCP flags on the first TCP packet in the flow.</t>
     <t>unionTCPFlags, CERT (PEN 6871) private IE 15, 1 octet, the
     union of the TCP flags on all packets after the first TCP packet
     in the flow.</t>
   </list>
   <t>An Exporting Process exporting flows containing these
   Information Elements might use a Template like the following:</t>
   <figure title="Template with Enterprise-Specific IEs" anchor="esie-template">
     <artwork><![CDATA[
                     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 =  52         |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|      Template ID = 256        |        Field Count = 9        |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| flowStartSeconds        150 |       Field Length =  4       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| sourceIPv4Address         8 |       Field Length =  4       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| destinationIPv4Address   12 |       Field Length =  4       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| sourceTransportPort       7 |       Field Length =  2       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| destinationTransportPort 11 |       Field Length =  2       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|0| octetTotalCount          85 |       Field Length =  4       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
|1| (initialTCPFlags)        14 |       Field Length =  1       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+   
|                            PEN 6871                           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+   
|1| (unionTCPFlags)          15 |       Field Length =  1       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+   
|                            PEN 6871                           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+   
|0| protocolIdentifier        4 |       Field Length =  1       |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
     ]]></artwork>
   </figure>
   <t>However, a Collecting Process receiving Data Sets described by this Template can only treat the enterprise-specific Information Elements as opaque octets; specifically, there is no hint to the collector that they contain flag information. To use the type information extension mechanism to address this problem, the Exporting Process would first export the Information Element Type Options Template described in section 3.9 above:</t>
   <figure title="Example Information Element Type Options Template" anchor="ieso-template">
     <artwork><![CDATA[
                     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 =  26         |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|      Template ID = 257        |        Field Count = 4        |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|    Scope Field Count = 2      |0| priv.EnterpriseNumber  TBD8 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|       Field Length = 4        |0| informationElementId    303 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|       Field Length = 2        |0| inf.El.DataType        TBD1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|       Field Length = 1        |0| inf.El.Semantics       TBD6 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|       Field Length = 1        |0| inf.El.Name            TBD3 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|     Field Length = 65536      |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     ]]></artwork>
   </figure>
   <t>Then, the Exporting Process would then export two records described by the Example Information Element Type Options Template to describe the enterprise-specific Information Elements:</t>
       <figure title="Type Information Extension Example" anchor="ieso-data">
     <artwork><![CDATA[
                     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 =  50         |  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|                            PEN 6871                           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|           IE 14               |0x01 unsigned8 |0x05 flags     |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|   15 length   |                                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                                               |
|                      "initialTCPFlags"                        |
|                                                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|                            PEN 6871                           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|           IE 15               |0x01 unsigned8 |0x05 flags     |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
|   13 length   |                                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+        "unionTCPFlags"                        |
|                               +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
]]></artwork>
   </figure>

 </section>
</back>
</rfc>

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-23 08:24:36