Subject: [ipfix] [issue] INFO-18 Field semantics (counters vs. quantities)

From: "MEYER,JEFFREY D (HP-Cupertino,ex1)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 16:11:44 -0500

Issue:  INFO-18  Field semantics (counters vs. quantities)
Description: 
  Counters vs. Identifiers (OVMS) vs. Discrete Quantities (Gauge?) 
   - explicitly distinguish between the two.  However, when it comes to
     storing results, e.g. to do reporting, a counter is pretty much
     useless (i.e. a collector will likely turn a counter into an
     integer).
     
   - Counters may NOT have a variable length, as this makes wrap 
     calculation problematic.
     
   - Needs discussion in protocol encoding section.  I.e. something like:
   
      When specifying field length in templates an implementation MAY
      chose to specify a length shorter than that associated with the
      declared integral information element type from the information model.
      This can reduce overall message lengths when a particular 
      implementation knows it will only encounter values in a smaller
      range which can fit in fewer bytes.
      
      Sizes should be downgraded in powers of two in bytes:  i.e. 
      1, 2 or 4.  Currently there are no integral types greater than 
      8 bytes.  If these come into vogue then downgrading from 16 to
      8 say would also be an option.
 
  http://ipfix.doit.wisc.edu/archive/1981.html
<http://ipfix.doit.wisc.edu/archive/1981.html>

---

From: "Tal Givoly" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 15:14:21 -0800

Jeff,

I don't believe that "gauge", "quantities" or "identifiers" are good enough
one-word-descriptions for "delta values" we refered to sometimes as
"integers". I made an earlier recommendation on terminology and didn't see
any response (also see
http://ipfx.doit.wisc.edu/list/ipfix/archive/2109.html ).

Tal
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  Subject: [ipfix] [issue] INFO-18 Field semantics (counters vs. quantities)

        declared integral information element type from the information
model.