Re: [IPFIX] No active/inactive timeout definitions in any IPFIX RFCs? Idle versus inactive terminology? (part of draft-ietf-bmwg-ipflow-meth-09 review)

["Jan Novak (janovak)" <[e-mail]>]

Hi,
I have checked the IPFIX documents at the time and couldn't
find any definitions while there was a need for them for
the BMWG document - so that's why it is there.
The definitions are quite cumbersome to develop (as you
as well might remember :-)) and still are to some
extent controversial (or every reviewer so far
picked at them).

Jan

The climate of Edinburgh is such that the weak succumb young .... 
and the strong envy them.
                                 Dr. Johnson


From: Benoit Claise (bclaise) 
Sent: 10 April 2012 12:08
To: [e-mail]
Cc: Jan Novak (janovak); Ron Bonica; Al Morton
Subject: No active/inactive timeout definitions in any IPFIX RFCs? Idle versus inactive terminology? (part of draft-ietf-bmwg-ipflow-meth-09 review)

Dear all,

Reading draft-ietf-bmwg-ipflow-meth-09.txt, I realized that this draft defines two new terms: Active Timeout and Inactive Timeout.
I was thinking: surely, we have defined those terms already in some IPFIX RFCs.
Actually, I was unable to find any references.... Have I overlooked something?

The only pointers I could find are in RFC5102
5.11.1.  flowActiveTimeout

   Description:
      The number of seconds after which an active Flow is timed out
      anyway, even if there is still a continuous flow of packets.
   Abstract Data Type: unsigned16
   ElementId: 36
   Status: current
   Units: seconds

5.11.2.  flowIdleTimeout


   Description:
      A Flow is considered to be timed out if no packets belonging to
      the Flow have been observed for the number of seconds specified by
      this field.
   Abstract Data Type: unsigned16
   ElementId: 37
   Status: current
   Units: seconds

5.11.3.  flowEndReason
Description:
      The reason for Flow termination.  The range of values includes the
      following:

      0x01: idle timeout
            The Flow was terminated because it was considered to be
            idle.

      0x02: active timeout
            The Flow was terminated for reporting purposes while it was
            still active, for example, after the maximum lifetime of
            unreported Flows was reached.

      ...


Here is one issue.
Some documents refer to inactive timeout
    RFC5472, 
    ipfixMeteringProcessCacheInactiveTimeout in http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-ipfix-rfc5815bis-03
    inactiveTimeout in http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-ipfix-configuration-model-10
While some others refer to idle timeout
    RFC 5102, 
    draft-ietf-bmwg-ipflow-meth-09

Any proposal to fix this problem?

Regards, Benoit (OPS A.D.)