Subject: ToC proposal for the Generic Access Interfaces for the RTFM Meter

From: Marcelo Pias <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 11:41:45 -0300

Dear All,

	I want to propose a ToC for a possible draft regarding the definition of
two generic access interfaces for the RTFM meter.

	In my opinion, we need to make discussions about this. So, I would
appreciate comments, ideas!!

	Cheers. Marcelo

---------------- First ToC Proposal  --------------------------

	Generic Access Interfaces for the RTFM Meter

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

   2. Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

   3. Metering Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

   4. Generic Manager Interface (GMI) - Control . . .  . . . . . . 
   4.1. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
   4.2. Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   4.3. Implementation considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

   5. Generic Reader Interface (GRI) - Data . . . . . . . . . . . .
   5.1. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   5.2. Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   5.3. Implementation considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

   6. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

   7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

   8. Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
   Marcelo Pias, PhD Student funded by British Telecom Labs
   University College London (UCL), Department of Computer Science 
   URL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/M.Pias/
-------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Juergen Quittek <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 20:58:56 +0200

Hi Marcelo,

> two generic access interfaces for the RTFM meter.

I very much like your initiative for defining an RTFM access interface
for RTFM managers and readers. I see a big need for such an interface,
particularly for management and accounting applications.

> appreciate comments, ideas!!

At NEC we built a Java class library modeling the RTFM architecture,
something like a small version of what you are proposing.

However, for the applications we have been dealing with (policy-based
management, accounting for single value added services) also higher-level
interface functions were required.

The main point was, that the application programmers were used to deal
with IP addresses, port numbers, TOS fields, etc., but not with RTFM
rules and rule sets.

Consequently we added another layer on top of our RTFM library which
we called flow measurement interface. This interface allows an application
to specify flows to be measured without dealing with RTFM rules or SRL.
You'll find the javadoc interface description in the attached HTML pages.

The core class is FlowSpecification which provides means for specifying
flow measurements without writing rule files. Such a flow specification
can be passed to a manager (class MeteringManager) which converts the
specification into a rule set and installs it at one or more meters.
Then it returns a reader interface which can be used by the application
to access measured data corresponding to the specified flow.

>    5.3. Implementation considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I suggest to extend this document by a higher-level Flow Measurement
Interface (FMI) which offers an abstraction of the RTFM architecture,
hiding several details. Via this interface applications can specify
flow measurements and can retrieve measurement data in a simple way,
dealing only with flow specs and measured flow data.

This can be based on the work at NEC mentioned above, or on some other
suggestions. But anyway, I consider it very important to have such an
interface available for applications requiring flow measurements.
Of course, application may still use GMI/GRI directly:

                   Application
                    |      |
                    V      |
                +-------+  |
                |  FMI  |  |
                +-------+  |
                    |      |
                    V      V
                +-------------+
                |  GMI / GRI  |
                +-------------+ 

Best wishes,

    Juergen
-- 
Juergen Quittek     [email-masked]     Tel: +49 30 254230-19
NEC Europe Ltd., C&C Research Laboratories   Fax: +49 30 254230-99
Hardenbergplatz 2, 10623 Berlin, Germany   http://www.ccrle.nec.de