Reduction of IP flow information in network traffic monitoring systems

Abstract

This paper deals with the design, implementation and evaluation of a method for the reduction of IP flow information. The aim of this method is to decrease the utilization of the measuring tools based on the IPFIX protocol. The designed method was implemented in the MyBeem component of the SLAmeter network traffic monitoring tool, which is used for measuring various network traffic characteristics. This method uses the values of the IP flow keys for decreasing the load of the monitoring system by reducing the number of flows sent from the Exporter(s) to the Collector(s). This technique focuses on aggregation by which the number of flows generated by the metering process is controlled. The main contribution of this paper is an IP flow information data reduction technique.