IP Flow Information Export (ipfix)
----------------------------------

 Charter
 Last Modified: 2008-03-20

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Nevil Brownlee  <n.brownlee@auckland.ac.nz>
     Juergen Quittek  <quittek@netlab.nec.de>

 Operations and Management Area Director(s):
     Dan Romascanu  <dromasca@avaya.com>
     Ronald Bonica  <rbonica@juniper.net>

 Operations and Management Area Advisor:
     Dan Romascanu  <dromasca@avaya.com>

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

Description of Working Group:

The IPFIX working group has specified the Information Model (to 
describe IP flows) and the IPFIX protocol (to transfer IP flow data 
from IPFIX exporters to collectors). Several implementers have already 
built applications using the IPFIX protocol. As a result of a series 
of IPFIX interoperability testing events the WG has produced 
guidelines for IPFIX implementation and testing as well as 
recommendations for handling special cases such as bidirectional flow 
reporting and reducing redundancy in flow records. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         Submit Revised Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Requirements 

   Done         Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Architecture 

   Done         Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Data Model 

   Done         Submit Internet-Draft on IPFIX Protocol Evaluation Report 

   Done         Submit Internet-Draft on IP Flow Export Applicability Statement 

   Done         Select IPFIX protocol, revise Architecture and Data Model 
                drafts 

   Done         Submit IPFX-REQUIREMENTS to IESG for publication as 
                Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFIX Protocol Evaluation Report to IESG for publication 
                as Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFX-ARCHITECTURE to IESG for publication as Proposed 
                Standard RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFX-INFO_MODEL to IESG for publication as Informational 
                RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFX-APPLICABILITY to IESG for publication as 
                Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFX-PROTOCOL to IESG for publication as Proposed 
                Standard RFC 

   Done         Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX Implementation Guidelines 

   Done         Publish Internet Draft on Reducing Redundancy in IPFIX data 
                transfer 

   Done         Publish Internet Draft on Handling IPFIX Bidirectional Flows 

   Done         Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX Testing 

   Done         Publish Internet Draft on IPFIX MIB 

   Done         Submit IPFIX Implementation Guidelines draft to IESG for 
                publication as Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFIX Reducing Redundancy draft to IESG for publication 
                as Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFIX Testing draft to IESG for publication as 
                Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit IPFIX Biflows draft to IESG for publication as Standards 
                Track RFC 

   Done         Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Type Information Export 

   Dec 2007       Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Configuration Data Model 

   Dec 2007       Publish Internet draft on Single SCTP Stream Reporting 

   Done         Publish Internet draft on IPFIX File Format 

   Jan 2008       Publish Internet draft on IPFIX Mediation Problem Statement 

   Jan 2008       Submit File Format draft to IESG for publication as Standards 
                track RFC 

   Mar 2008       Submit IPFIX MIB draft to IESG for publication as Standards 
                track RFC 

   Jun 2008       Submit Type Export draft to IESG for publication as Standards 
                track RFC 

   Jun 2008       Submit Single SCTP Stream draft to IESG for publication as 
                Informational RFC 

   Oct 2008       Submit Configuration Data Model draft to IESG for publication 
                as Standards track RFC 

   Oct 2008       Submit Mediation Problem draft to IESG for publication as 
                Informational RFC 


 Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
Feb 2002 Sep 2006   <draft-ietf-ipfix-architecture-12.txt>
                Architecture for IP Flow Information Export 

Jun 2003 Jul 2007   <draft-ietf-ipfix-as-12.txt>
                IPFIX Applicability 

Sep 2006 Dec 2007   <draft-ietf-ipfix-implementation-guidelines-08.txt>
                IPFIX Implementation Guidelines 

Sep 2006 May 2007   <draft-ietf-ipfix-reducing-redundancy-04.txt>
                Reducing Redundancy in IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) and 
                Packet Sampling (PSAMP) Reports 

Oct 2006 Apr 2008   <draft-ietf-ipfix-testing-05.txt>
                Guidelines for IP Flow Information eXport (IPFIX) Testing 

Feb 2007 Feb 2008   <draft-ietf-ipfix-mib-03.txt>
                Definitions of Managed Objects for IP Flow Information Export 

Jan 2008 Feb 2008   <draft-ietf-ipfix-file-01.txt>
                An IPFIX-Based File Format 

Jan 2008 Feb 2008   <draft-ietf-ipfix-exporting-type-01.txt>
                Exporting Type Information for IPFIX Information Elements 

 Request For Comments:

  RFC   Stat Published     Title
------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------
RFC3917 I    Oct 2004    Requirements for IP Flow Information Export 

RFC3955 I    Nov 2004    Evaluation of Candidate Protocols for IP Flow 
                       Information Export (IPFIX) 

RFC5103 PS   Jan 2008    Bidirectional Flow Export using IP Flow Information 
                       Export (IPFIX) 

RFC5102 PS   Jan 2008    Information Model for IP Flow Information Export 

RFC5101 PS   Jan 2008    Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) 
                       Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information