Stay with the flow

By Denise Dubie, NetworkWorld.com, 02/23/04

Last week Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth detailed a management standard picking up steam within the IETF called sFlow. Apparently sFlow hasn't gotten too much attention until recently when traffic speeds began to grow to gigabit and 10G in some companies. Proponents says sFlow will become more important for tracking network performance and providing network security. SFlow uses a random sampling of LAN and WAN data packet flows across an entire network to provide a real-time view of network traffic performance. (Foundry and HP offer sFlow-based switches today) A cousin to sFlow and a proposed IETF standard, IP Flow Information Export or IPFIX, also uses traffic flows as a means for management. IPFIX defines a method for routers and switches to export traffic-flow data to management systems. If adopted, the export standard would be included in network gear from Cisco, Nortel, Riverstone Networks and others.

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