path: root/doc/rfc/rfc5610.txt

Network Working Group                                          E. Boschi
Request for Comments: 5610                                   B. Trammell
Category: Standards Track                                 Hitachi Europe
                                                                 L. Mark
                                                         Fraunhofer IFAM
                                                                T. Zseby
                                                        Fraunhofer FOKUS
                                                               July 2009


                    Exporting Type Information for
        IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Information Elements

Abstract

   This document describes an extension to the IP Flow Information
   Export (IPFIX) protocol, which is used to represent and transmit data
   from IP flow measurement devices for collection, storage, and
   analysis, to allow the encoding of IPFIX Information Model properties
   within an IPFIX Message stream.  This enables the export of extended
   type information for enterprise-specific Information Elements and the
   storage of such information within IPFIX Files, facilitating
   interoperability and reusability among a wide variety of applications
   and tools.

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of
   publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.








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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  IPFIX Documents Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Type Information Export  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1.  informationElementDataType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.2.  informationElementDescription  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.3.  informationElementName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.4.  informationElementRangeBegin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.5.  informationElementRangeEnd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.6.  informationElementSemantics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.7.  informationElementUnits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.8.  privateEnterpriseNumber  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.9.  Information Element Type Options Template  . . . . . . . . 10
     3.10. Data Type and Semantics Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   4.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   6.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     7.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     7.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   Appendix A.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17




























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1.  Introduction

   IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) provides a template mechanism for
   the flexible description of Data Records, by defining a record as a
   collection of Information Elements defined in an IANA registry,
   However, these Templates provide limited information about the type
   of described data; indeed, they encode only the size of the fields
   defined by these Information Elements.  There presently exists no
   mechanism to provide full type information for these Information
   Elements, as is defined for the Information Elements in the IPFIX
   Information Model [RFC5102].

   This especially 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 have not been specifically developed to
   understand them.

   This document defines a general 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 resorting to an external reference or
   reliance on out-of-band configuration, thereby improving the
   interoperability of enterprise-specific Information Elements.

   Note that the solution described in this document is not intended as
   a replacement for registration with IANA of generally useful
   Information Elements.  It introduces overhead and does not lead to
   real interoperability as provided by standardization.  Therefore, we
   highly recommend standardizing all new generally useful Information
   Elements by registering them with IANA.  Standardization is
   straightforward, and 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.

   It might happen that an Information Element previously described by
   the mechanism in this document later becomes an IANA-registered,
   standard Information Element.  In such environments, old and new
   versions of the Information Element can coexist.  A translation



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   between Information Elements expressed by the described solution and
   standardized Information Elements is therefore not necessary and is
   out of scope for this document.

1.1.  IPFIX Documents Overview

   "Specification of the IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) Protocol for
   the Exchange of IP Traffic Flow Information" [RFC5101] (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.

   "Architecture for IP Flow Information Export" [RFC5470] (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
   "Requirements for IP Flow Information Export" [RFC3917].  The IPFIX
   Protocol document [RFC5101] 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.

   "Information Model for IP Flow Information Export" [RFC5102]
   (informally, the IPFIX Information Model document) describes the
   Information Elements used by IPFIX, including details on Information
   Element naming, numbering, and data type encoding.

   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.  It draws data type definitions and data type semantics
   definitions from the Information Model; the encodings of these data
   types are defined in [RFC5101].

2.  Terminology

   Terms used in this document that are defined in the Terminology
   section of the IPFIX Protocol [RFC5101] document are to be
   interpreted as defined there.

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].







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3.  Type Information Export

   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 structure of the Options
   Template describing the type records.

   Note that Information Element type records require one Information
   Element, informationElementId, that is defined in the Packet Sampling
   (PSAMP) Information Model [RFC5477].  This Information Element
   supports references only to IANA-defined Information Elements; the
   privateEnterpriseNumber Information Element is required alongside
   informationElementId to describe enterprise-specific Information
   Elements.

3.1.  informationElementDataType

   Description:   A description of the abstract data type of an IPFIX
      information element.  These are taken from the abstract data types
      defined in Section 3.1 of the IPFIX Information Model [RFC5102];
      see that section for more information on the types described
      below.  This field may take the values defined in Table 1 below.


























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                     +-------+----------------------+
                     | Value | Description          |
                     +-------+----------------------+
                     | 0     | octetArray           |
                     | 1     | unsigned8            |
                     | 2     | unsigned16           |
                     | 3     | unsigned32           |
                     | 4     | unsigned64           |
                     | 5     | signed8              |
                     | 6     | signed16             |
                     | 7     | signed32             |
                     | 8     | signed64             |
                     | 9     | float32              |
                     | 10    | float64              |
                     | 11    | boolean              |
                     | 12    | macAddress           |
                     | 13    | string               |
                     | 14    | dateTimeSeconds      |
                     | 15    | dateTimeMilliseconds |
                     | 16    | dateTimeMicroseconds |
                     | 17    | dateTimeNanoseconds  |
                     | 18    | ipv4Address          |
                     | 19    | ipv6Address          |
                     +-------+----------------------+

                         Table 1: IE Data Type Values

      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 Standards
      Action [RFC5226] to modify.

   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned8

   ElementId:   339

   Status:   current

   Reference:   Section 3.1 of the IPFIX Information Model [RFC5102]

3.2.  informationElementDescription

   Description:   A UTF-8 [RFC3629] encoded Unicode string containing a
      human-readable description of an Information Element.  The content
      of the informationElementDescription MAY be annotated with one or
      more language tags [RFC4646], encoded in-line [RFC2482] within the
      UTF-8 string, in order to specify the language in which the



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      description is written.  Description text in multiple languages
      MAY tag each section with its own language tag; in this case, the
      description information in each language SHOULD have equivalent
      meaning.  In the absence of any language tag, the "i-default"
      [RFC2277] language SHOULD be assumed.  See the Security
      Considerations (Section 4) for notes on string handling for
      Information Element type records.

   Abstract Data Type:   string

   ElementId:   340

   Status:   current

3.3.  informationElementName

   Description:   A UTF-8 [RFC3629] encoded Unicode string containing
      the name of an Information Element, intended as a simple
      identifier.  See the Security Considerations (Section 4) for notes
      on string handling for Information Element type records.

   Abstract Data Type:   string

   ElementId:   341

   Status:   current

3.4.  informationElementRangeBegin

   Description:   Contains the inclusive low end of the range of
      acceptable values for an Information Element.

   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned64

   Data Type Semantics:   quantity

   ElementId:   342

   Status:   current

3.5.  informationElementRangeEnd

   Description:   Contains the inclusive high end of the range of
      acceptable values for an Information Element.







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   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned64

   Data Type Semantics:   quantity

   ElementId:   343

   Status:   current

3.6.  informationElementSemantics

   Description:   A description of the semantics of an IPFIX Information
      Element.  These are taken from the data type semantics defined in
      Section 3.2 of the IPFIX Information Model [RFC5102]; see that
      section for more information on the types described below.  This
      field may take the values in Table 2 below.  The special value
      0x00 (default) 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.

                         +-------+--------------+
                         | Value | Description  |
                         +-------+--------------+
                         | 0     | default      |
                         | 1     | quantity     |
                         | 2     | totalCounter |
                         | 3     | deltaCounter |
                         | 4     | identifier   |
                         | 5     | flags        |
                         +-------+--------------+

                         Table 2: IE Semantics Values

      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
      Standards Action [RFC5226] to modify.

   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned8

   ElementId:   344

   Status:   current

   Reference:   Section 3.2 of the IPFIX Information Model [RFC5102]






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3.7.  informationElementUnits

   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 IPFIX
      Information Model [RFC5102]; see that section for more information
      on the types described below.  This field may take the values in
      Table 3 below; the special value 0x00 (none) is used to note that
      the field is unitless.

           +-------+---------------+---------------------------+
           | Value | Name          | Notes                     |
           +-------+---------------+---------------------------+
           | 0     | none          |                           |
           | 1     | bits          |                           |
           | 2     | octets        |                           |
           | 3     | packets       |                           |
           | 4     | flows         |                           |
           | 5     | seconds       |                           |
           | 6     | milliseconds  |                           |
           | 7     | microseconds  |                           |
           | 8     | nanoseconds   |                           |
           | 9     | 4-octet words | for IPv4 header length    |
           | 10    | messages      | for reliability reporting |
           | 11    | hops          | for TTL                   |
           | 12    | entries       | for MPLS label stack      |
           +-------+---------------+---------------------------+

                           Table 3: IE Units Values

      These types are registered in the IANA IPFIX Information Element
      Units subregistry; new types may be added on a First Come First
      Served [RFC5226] basis.

   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned16

   ElementId:   345

   Status:   current

   Reference:   Section 5 of the IPFIX Information Model [RFC5102]

3.8.  privateEnterpriseNumber

   Description:   A private enterprise number, as assigned by IANA.
      Within the context of an Information Element Type record, this
      element can be used along with the informationElementId element to
      scope properties to a specific Information Element.  To export



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      type information about an IANA-assigned Information Element, set
      the privateEnterpriseNumber to 0, or do not export the
      privateEnterpriseNumber in the type record.  To export type
      information about an enterprise-specific Information Element,
      export the enterprise number in privateEnterpriseNumber, and
      export the Information Element number with the Enterprise bit
      cleared in informationElementId.  The Enterprise bit in the
      associated informationElementId Information Element MUST be
      ignored by the Collecting Process.

   Abstract Data Type:   unsigned32

   Data Type Semantics:   identifier

   ElementId:   346

   Status:   current

   Reference:   Sections 3.2 and 3.4.1 of the IPFIX Protocol [RFC5101];
      Section 8.2.3 of the PSAMP Information Model [RFC5477].

3.9.  Information Element Type Options Template

   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.

   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.

   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.

   Similarly, for security reasons, type information for a given
   Information Element MUST NOT be redefined by Information Element type
   records, and a Collecting Process MUST NOT allow an Information



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   Element type record to replace its own internal definition of an
   Information Element.  Information Element type records SHOULD NOT be
   duplicated in a given Observation Domain within a Transport Session.
   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.
   Information Elements for which a Collecting Process receives
   conflicting semantic or type information MUST be ignored.

   Note that while this template MAY be used to export information about
   any Information Element, including those registered with IANA,
   Exporting Processes SHOULD NOT export any type records that could be
   reasonably assumed to duplicate type information available at the
   Collecting Process.  This mechanism is not intended as a replacement
   for Exporting and Collecting Processes keeping up to date with
   changes to the IANA registry; such an update mechanism is out of
   scope for this document.

   The template SHOULD contain the Information Elements in Table 4,
   below, as defined in the PSAMP Information Model [RFC5477] and in
   this document, above.

   +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
   | IE                            | Description                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
   | informationElementId [scope]  | The Information Element           |
   |                               | identifier of the Information     |
   |                               | Element described by this type    |
   |                               | record.  This Information Element |
   |                               | MUST be defined as a Scope Field. |
   |                               | See the PSAMP Information Model   |
   |                               | [RFC5477] for a definition of     |
   |                               | this field.                       |
   | privateEnterpriseNumber       | The Private Enterprise number of  |
   | [scope]                       | the Information Element described |
   |                               | by this type record.  This        |
   |                               | Information Element MUST be       |
   |                               | defined as a Scope Field.         |
   | informationElementDataType    | The storage type of the specified |
   |                               | Information Element.              |
   | informationElementSemantics   | The semantic type of the          |
   |                               | specified Information Element.    |
   | informationElementUnits       | The units of the specified        |
   |                               | Information Element.  This        |
   |                               | element SHOULD be omitted if the  |
   |                               | Information Element is a unitless |
   |                               | quantity, or a not a quantity or  |
   |                               | counter.                          |



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   +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
   | IE (Continued)                | Description (Continued)           |
   +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
   | informationElementRangeBegin  | The low end of the range of       |
   |                               | acceptable values for the         |
   |                               | specified Information Element.    |
   |                               | This element SHOULD be omitted if |
   |                               | the beginning of the Information  |
   |                               | Element's acceptable range is     |
   |                               | defined by its data type.         |
   | informationElementRangeEnd    | The high end of the range of      |
   |                               | acceptable values for the         |
   |                               | specified Information Element.    |
   |                               | This element SHOULD be omitted if |
   |                               | the end Information Element's     |
   |                               | acceptable range is defined by    |
   |                               | its data type.                    |
   | informationElementName        | The name of the specified         |
   |                               | Information Element.              |
   | informationElementDescription | A human-readable description of   |
   |                               | the specified Information         |
   |                               | Element.  This element MAY be     |
   |                               | omitted in the interest of export |
   |                               | efficiency.                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

                         Table 4: IE Type Options

3.10.  Data Type and Semantics Restrictions

   Note that the informationElementSemantics values defined in Section
   3.2 of [RFC5102] 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.  The following are acceptable values of
   informationElementSemantics:

   o  Any value is valid for unsigned informationElementDataType values
      ("unsigned8", "unsigned16", "unsigned32", or "unsigned64").

   o  Any value except "flags" is valid for signed
      informationElementDataType values ("signed8", "signed16",
      "signed32", or "signed64").

   o  Any value except "identifier" or "flags" is valid for floating-
      point informationElementDataType values ("float32" or "float64").




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   o  Only "default" is valid for all other informationElementDataType
      values ("octetArray", "boolean", "macAddress", "string",
      "dateTimeSeconds", "dateTimeMilliseconds", "dateTimeMicroseconds",
      "dateTimeNanoseconds", "ipv4Address", or "ipv6Address").

   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.

   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 section such as
   this one to define allowable combinations of type and semantics
   information.

4.  Security Considerations

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

   In addition, attention must be paid to the handling of Information
   Element type records at the Collecting Process.  Type information
   precedence rules defined above (a Collecting Process' current
   knowledge overrides type records; types are not redefinable during a
   session) are designed to minimize the opportunity for an attacker to
   maliciously redefine the data model.

   Note that Information Element type records may contain two strings
   describing Information Elements: informationElementName and
   informationElementDescription.  IPFIX strings on the wire are length-
   prefixed and UTF-8 [RFC3629] encoded, most often within an IPFIX
   variable-length Information Element, which mitigates the risk of
   unterminated-string attacks against IPFIX Collecting Processes.
   However, care should still be taken when handling strings within the
   type system of the Collecting Process.

   First, Collecting Processes should pay particular attention to buffer
   sizes converting between length-prefixed and null-terminated strings.
   Exporting Processes MUST NOT export, and Collecting Processes MUST
   ignore, any informationElementName or informationElementDescription
   content that contains null characters (U+0000) in order to ensure
   buffer and string lengths are consistent.

   Also, note that there is no limit to IPFIX string length beyond that
   inherent in the protocol.  The maximum IPFIX string length is 65512
   octets (maximum message length (65535), minus message header (16),
   minus set header (4), minus long variable length field (3)).



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   Specifically, although the informationElementName of all IANA
   Information Elements at the time of this writing is less than about
   40 octets, and the informationElementDescription is less than 4096
   octets, either of these Information Elements may contain strings up
   to 65512 octets long.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document specifies several new IPFIX Information Elements in the
   IPFIX Information Element registry as defined in Section 3 above.
   IANA has assigned the following Information Element numbers for their
   respective Information Elements as specified below:

   o  Information Element Number 339 for the informationElementDataType
      Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 340 for the
      informationElementDescription Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 341 for the informationElementName
      Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 342 for the
      informationElementRangeBegin Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 343 for the informationElementRangeEnd
      Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 344 for the informationElementSemantics
      Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 345 for the informationElementUnits
      Information Element

   o  Information Element Number 346 for the privateEnterpriseNumber
      Information Element

   IANA has created an Information Element Data Type subregistry for the
   values defined for the informationElementDataType Information
   Element.  Entries may be added to this subregistry subject to a
   Standards Action [RFC5226].

   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
   Standards Action [RFC5226].





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   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 Expert Review
   [RFC5226] basis.

6.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Paul Aitken and Gerhard Muenz for the detailed reviews, and
   to David Moore for first raising this issue to the IPFIX mailing
   list.  Thanks to the PRISM project for its support of this work.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC5101]  Claise, B., "Specification of the IP Flow Information
              Export (IPFIX) Protocol for the Exchange of IP Traffic
              Flow Information", RFC 5101, January 2008.

   [RFC5102]  Quittek, J., Bryant, S., Claise, B., Aitken, P., and J.
              Meyer, "Information Model for IP Flow Information Export",
              RFC 5102, January 2008.

   [RFC5477]  Dietz, T., Claise, B., Aitken, P., Dressler, F., and G.
              Carle, "Information Model for Packet Sampling Exports",
              RFC 5477, March 2009.

   [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

   [RFC2277]  Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and
              Languages", BCP 18, RFC 2277, January 1998.

   [RFC2482]  Whistler, K. and G. Adams, "Language Tagging in Unicode
              Plain Text", RFC 2482, January 1999.

   [RFC4646]  Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Tags for Identifying
              Languages", BCP 47, RFC 4646, September 2006.

   [RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
              May 2008.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.






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RFC 5610                 IPFIX Type Information                July 2009


7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC3917]  Quittek, J., Zseby, T., Claise, B., and S. Zander,
              "Requirements for IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)",
              RFC 3917, October 2004.

   [RFC5470]  Sadasivan, G., Brownlee, N., Claise, B., and J. Quittek,
              "Architecture for IP Flow Information Export", RFC 5470,
              March 2009.










































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RFC 5610                 IPFIX Type Information                July 2009


Appendix A.  Examples

   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:

   o  initialTCPFlags, an example private IE 14, 1 octet, the TCP flags
      on the first TCP packet in the flow.

   o  unionTCPFlags, an example private IE 15, 1 octet, the union of the
      TCP flags on all packets after the first TCP packet in the flow.

   An Exporting Process exporting flows containing these Information
   Elements might use a Template like the following:

                        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       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                  Private Enterprise Number                    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |1| (unionTCPFlags)          15 |       Field Length =  1       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                  Private Enterprise Number                    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |0| protocolIdentifier        4 |       Field Length =  1       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

              Figure 1: Template with Enterprise-Specific IEs




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   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:

                        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   346 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |       Field Length = 4        |0| informationElementId    303 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |       Field Length = 2        |0| inf.El.DataType         339 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |       Field Length = 1        |0| inf.El.Semantics        344 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |       Field Length = 1        |0| inf.El.Name             341 |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     Field Length = 65536      |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

        Figure 2: Example Information Element Type Options Template

   Then, the Exporting Process would export two records described by the
   Example Information Element Type Options Template to describe the
   enterprise-specific Information Elements:


















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RFC 5610                 IPFIX Type Information                July 2009


                        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         |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                  Private Enterprise Number                    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |X|         IE 14               |0x01 unsigned8 |0x05 flags     |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |   15 length   |                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                                               |
   |                      "initialTCPFlags"                        |
   |                                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                  Private Enterprise Number                    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |X|         IE 15               |0x01 unsigned8 |0x05 flags     |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |   13 length   |                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+        "unionTCPFlags"                        |
   |                               +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                       Figure 3: Type Record Example


























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RFC 5610                 IPFIX Type Information                July 2009


Authors' Addresses

   Elisa Boschi
   Hitachi Europe
   c/o ETH Zurich
   Gloriastrasse 35
   8092 Zurich
   Switzerland

   Phone: +41 44 632 70 57
   EMail: elisa.boschi@hitachi-eu.com


   Brian Trammell
   Hitachi Europe
   c/o ETH Zurich
   Gloriastrasse 35
   8092 Zurich
   Switzerland

   Phone: +41 44 632 70 13
   EMail: brian.trammell@hitachi-eu.com


   Lutz Mark
   Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology
   and Applied Materials Research
   Wiener Str. 12
   28359 Bremen
   Germany

   Phone: +49 421 2246206
   EMail: lutz.mark@ifam.fraunhofer.de


   Tanja Zseby
   Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
   Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31
   10589 Berlin
   Germany

   Phone: +49 30 3463 7153
   EMail: tanja.zseby@fokus.fraunhofer.de








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