OPS Area
RMONMIB WG Meeting Minutes
44th IETF 
Minneapolis, MN USA
March 15, 1999
Minutes by Andy Bierman

Review Material
---------------

(A)  draft-ietf-rmonmib-smon-07.txt
(B)  draft-ietf-rmonmib-hcrmon-05.txt
(C)  draft-ietf-rmonmib-rmonprot-ref-00.txt
(D)  draft-ietf-rmonmib-rmonprot-mac-00.txt

Agenda
------

1) Status of drafts in progress
2) HC-RMON Publishing Issues
3) RFC 1513 Interoperability Report
4) RFC 1757 Interoperability Report
5) Updated proposal for new WG charter
6) Interface TopN feature proposal
7) Open discussion of the functional requirements
   for new feature proposals, or any other WG business

Minutes
-------

1) Status of drafts in progress

Several documents have been through a last review cycle.
Open issues were discussed, one document at a time.

1.1) SMON MIB

There are no current issues. An IESG Last Call has
been completed for the SMON  I-D (A).

1.2) RMON Protocol Identifier documents

The RMON Protocol Identifiers document was split into two 
drafts ((C) and (D)) as a result of the last review cycle.
The new drafts have not yet been reviewed, and no
reviewer has been assigned.  The review process should not 
have to be repeated since these (new) documents represent
a simple restructuring of the original document (RFC 2074).

An issue was raised on the mailing list regarding the
'countsFragments' bit in the protocolDirParameters
object.  Currently, if an agent is capable of 
decoding fragments at different protocol layers, this
information is not conveyed to the NMS.  The WG 
agreed to update a future version of this document
to relax this restriction in section 6.2.6.1.

1.3) HC-RMON MIB

Another review cycle has been completed for the HC-RMON MIB 
(I-D (B)). There are no open issues regarding the content
of the MIB, but an issue was encountered regarding the
integration of the new "TopN rate base" enumerations
for high-capacity rate base objects.

2) HC-RMON Publishing Issues

The hostTopNControlRateBase object in RFC 1757, and the
nlMatrixTopNControlRateBase and alMatrixTopNControlRateBase 
objects in RFC 2021, need to be re-published with
the additional high capacity enumerations, currently
defined in the HC-RMON MIB (I-D (B)). 

The following summary from Steve Waldbusser's slides
highlights the issues and resolutions related to
re-publication of these MIBs.

2.1) Problems

- HC-RMON MIB is a new MIB MODULE
- RateBase objects are in RMON1 and RMON2 modules
- Current draft includes updated definitions (with
  the extended enumerations) of RMON1 and RMON2 RateBase 
  objects in the HC-RMON MIB Module
- Full Standard version of the SMI recommends against
  updating existing MIB objects in new MIB modules.

2.2) Path Forward

- Finish work on SMIv2 version of RMON-1
- Create an RMON-1 High Capacity MIB
  - RMON-1 in SMIv2 with updated hostTopNControlRateBase
  - Publish as Proposed Standard RFC
- Create an RMON-2 High Capacity MIB
  - RMON-2 with updated nl,alMatrixTopNControlRateBase objects
  - Publish as Proposed Standard RFC
- Publish the HC-RMON Draft
 - Minus the 3 rateBase objects
 - Publish as Proposed Standard RFC
- Create the RMON-1 Full Standard MIB
 - RMON1 in SMIv2 format (w/o the updated hostTopNControlRateBase)
 - Publish as Full Standard RFC
- Create the RMON-2 Draft Standard MIB
  - RMON-2 without updated nl,alMatrixTopNControlRateBase objects
  - Publish as Draft Standard RFC

The WG agreed to this solution proposal.

3) RFC 1513 Implementation Experience 

The Token Ring RMON MIB implementation report has been
completed, and a final version will be forwarded to the 
Area Directors.  The WG agreed that all objects in
RFC 1513 have at least two independent interoperable
implementations, and the MIB should be advanced
to the status of Draft Standard.

RFC 1513 will be re-published in SMIv2 format.
No other changes will be made, with the exception
of any minor clarifications of known problems.

4) RFC 1757 Implementation Experience 

The RMON MIB implementation report has been completed, 
and a final version will be forwarded to the Area Directors.  
The WG agreed that all objects in RFC 1757 have at least 
two independent interoperable implementations, and the 
MIB should be advanced to the status of Full Standard.
There is sufficient evidence to indicate RMON-1 has been
widely deployed and proven to be a useful standard.

RFC 1757 will be re-published in SMIv2 format.
See section 2.2.2 for details on the the re-publication
of RMON-1.

5) Updated proposal for new WG charter

An updated version of a new RMONMIB charter proposal was 
presented and discussed.  The highlights of the new charter 
features are outlined below:

 - Network Service Level Monitoring 
   The WG still disagrees on the name and scope of this feature.
   The names 'Protocol Performance Metrics' and 'Application
   Performance Metrics' were discussed, along with the
   implications of each name.  The WG will attempt to
   reach consensus on the mailing list regarding the
   name and scope of this feature proposal.
   
 - Persistent Label to Address Mapping
   No discussion or changes made.

 - Differentiated Services Statistics Collection
   No discussion or changes made.

 - Protocol Directory Optimizations and Application Wildcarding
   No discussion or changes made.

 - Per Interface TopN Reporting
   The WG discussed the differenced between a generic TopN
   service, ala the usrHistoryTable, vs. a simple but
   specialized TopN mechanism for high density switches,
   The WG agreed both features are useful, but only
   the switch-specific TopN table would be developed
   by the RMONMIB WG.  Some proposed MIB objects for
   this feature were presented, and discussion of
   this MIB is expected to continue on the mailing list.

 - Frame Relay DataSource Issues
   There is sufficient interest in the WG to pursue
   some standardization of RMON for Frame Relay 
   interfaces.  It is hoped only minor and specific
   issues need to be addressed, such as the mapping
   of DLCIs to RMON DataSources, and encapsulation
   representation in the RMON Protocol Directory.

The proposed charter would take a year to complete
and assumes work can begin in April 1999.  

The WG charter text will be updated to include separate
milestones for each of the anticipated deliverables,
and the (final) version will be forwarded to the
WG mailing list and the Area Directors for comment.
It is expected that all work items will be completed in
a timely manner or dropped along the way.

6) Interface TopN feature proposal

A MIB outline proposal was presented by Dan Romascanu,
who will author the TopN Interface MIB extensions.
The WG agreed that Dan should publish an I-D
for this feature, which is expected to be adopted
as the baseline text for the RMON Interface TopN
feature.  However, the new WG charter must be approved 
before the RMONMIB WG can officially adopt any new work 
items.

7) Open discussion of the functional requirements
   for new feature proposals, or any other WG business

The WG discussed some of the proposed work items for the
new charter.  The WG agreed that such 'advanced metrics'
were discussed during the formation and design of the RMON-2 
MIB.  At that time, the only agreed upon statistics (that
could be collected for all protocols) were packet and octet 
counters. The WG now feels that more complex statistics
collection (e.g. application response time) should
now be added to the RMON standards.