Subject: RTFM Get-together report: Standard Flow Export

From: Nevil Brownlee <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 15:58:45 +1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

RTFM Informal Get-together, 
Minneapolis IETF, 1145, Wed 21 Mar 01

Notes by Nevil Brownlee (CAIDA / U Auckland)

21 people were present.

Nevil Brownlee reported on the RTFM2 BOF held at the 
San Diego IETF meeting last December.  The BOF was
followed up with some interesting discussion on the 
mailing list, but it appears unlikely that RTFM2 
will progress to become a new IETF Working Group.

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing other
ways of proceeding.  These were:

A. Standard Flow Export

The requirement here is for a standard definition
of traffic flows, together with effective transport
mechanisms allowing both push and pull of large 
amounts of flow data.  Current systems for this
(in the public domain) include NetFlow (Cisco),
LFAP (Riverstone) and RTFM.  A working group to
develop such a standard would fit well in the
Ops & Management Area.

Mike McFaden (Riverstone) and Chris Elliott (Cisco)
agreed to start moves towards forming a Working Group, 
by initiating discussion on the RTFM mailing list,
To begin with, we'd like to gather opinions as to what 
we really mean when we speak of 'flows.'

[Nevil volunteered to add everyone at the get-together 
to the RTFM list, [email-masked].  
It's a majordomo list, [email-masked]]

To get a Working Group chartered we need:
 - One or more Internet Drafts, at least one of
   which should be a 'requirements' draft.  (These
   are submitted and published as individual drafts.)
 - A draft charter, setting out clearly what the
   WG wants to do, including realistic Goals and
   Milestones.
 - Two or three co-chairs to run a BOF.
 - Support from Area Director(s).

To get a BOF scheduled at the next IETF meeting,
(London early in August) we need to see drafts 
published by about the end of April.  Anyone willing /
able to write such drafts is encouraged to do so; 
Nevil is prepared to act as document editor to collate 
material sent to the mailing list.

B. Transport Performance Measuremnt (TPM) in RMON

Carter Bullard reported that the RMON WG has TPM
as a work item, and suggested that it could be a good 
place (within the IETF) for new work on measurements, 
e.g. implementing some of the IPPM metrics.  There 
was general agreement.

[At the RMON WG meeting Thursday monring (22 Mar),
the WG decided that they would not proceed further
with TPM.]

C. Measurements in Routers

Nevil reported discussions with our Transport Area
Directors on this topic.  It seems there could well be
support for a Transport Area Working Group on this topic.

Nevil is preparing a short document setting out the
kinds of measurements users (i.e. ISPs) would like to
make in routers.  He'd like to hear opinions, suggestions
etc. on this (via the RTFM mailing list) from anyone who's 
interested.   Even better, he'd like to hear from people 
(and/or vendors) who'd be prepared to contribute to such 
a WG.

The meeting finished at 1220.

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| Nevil Brownlee                     Director, Technology Development |
| Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x8941        ITSS, The University of Auckland |
|   FAX: +64 9 373 7021      Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand |
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