Subject: [ipfix] Goals for Atlanta meeting

From: Nevil Brownlee <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 08:23:00 +1300

Hello all:

After the flood of email on the IPFIX list, I couldn't resist taking off
my WG Co-chair hat for a moment and adding my own opinion ..

1) The WG charter is to 'standardise existing practice.'  To me that
   means 
    - Making a clear specification of IPFIX requirements, and
    - Documenting existing systems/protocols.
   As part of this, we want to address the various problems we've all
   encountered in using the existing systems.

2) Current issues.  
   * We agreed that dynamic configuration (of a flow exporter) is outside 
     the WG charter. [WG consensus]
   * It's clear that a 'standard IPFIX' must allow for various levels
     of reliability.  That suggests either having a base level (MUST) and
     higher levels (SHOULD and MAY), or having a mnimum set of features
     which applications can use to implement whatever level of reliability
     they need. [list consensus]
   * Flow attributes which relate to specific protocols (e.g. MPLS flow
     label, difserv code point) MUST be supported by devices which
     implement those protocols, and SHOULD be supported by other devices.
     [Nevil's own opinion]

3) Producing a Proposed Standard for IPFIX.
   While it would be wonderful if we could all agree on this, one must
   remember that we're looking at five existing protocols which have
   evolved to meet differing needs.  That means that a 'standard IPFIX'
   protocol will need to be one which vendors can migrate to gracefully,
   over some period of time.  

   To make progress on that standard, I hope we can
   * Reduce the number of protocols being considered, by eliminating
     any which clearly won't meet the requirements.
   * See whether some advocates could work together to merge their
     protocols together.

   After that we need to pick whichever of the existing protocols is
   the best fit to the requirements, and work on *small* modifications
   (e.g. supporting several different grades of reliability) to it.

For the Atlanta meeting, I trust we can reach consensus on the open
issues - allowing us to complete the requirements document - and make
some worthwhile progress on our protocol evaluation process.

Now I'll put my WG Co-chair hat back on, and look forward to seeing
you in Atlanta.

Cheers, Nevil

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Nevil Brownlee                
   Director, Technology Development
   Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x88941     ITSS, The University of Auckland
   FAX: +64 9 373 7021      Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

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