[e2e] number of flows per unit time in routers

[Ping Pan]

IMHO, at network edge, it's more like a bunch of application flows in 
any arbitrary pattern and combination from the user side to aggregate 
into one of the two "flows" toward the core:

(1) IP destination route
(2) MPLS/PWE3 label

Both have gotten deployed already in the core.

- Ping


Ghanwani, Anoop wrote:
> I have a very basic question -
> 
> Is there industry consensus on what constitutes a flow?
> Theoretically, it could be some arbitrary bit mask being
> applied to every packet.  However, in practice people talk
> about TCP flows, UDP flows, ICMP flows, etc.  Just wondering
> if there is a comprehensive list of these anywhere.
> 
> Thanks,
> Anoop 
> 
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: end2end-interest-bounces at postel.org 
>>[mailto:end2end-interest-bounces at postel.org] On Behalf Of 
>>Craig Partridge
>>Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 10:41 AM
>>To: Bob Braden
>>Cc: end2end-interest at postel.org
>>Subject: Re: [e2e] number of flows per unit time in routers
>>
>>
>>Hi Bob:
>>
>>Sounds as if I need to provide a bit of context.  If you are tracking
>>flows (imagine a router keeping track of flows, using, say 
>>something like
>>NetFlow), one question is how many flows do I need to keep track of.
>>Another question is how fast may I have to create new flows or expire
>>old flows.  Yet another question, and the one I was aiming at, is that
>>if I'm archiving flow records over time, at what rate do I have to
>>archive?
>>
>>Note that for all but the first question, flows per second 
>>makes perfect
>>sense.
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Craig
>>
>>In message <200510281712.KAA11769 at gra.isi.edu>, Bob Braden writes:
>>
>>
>>>It seems to me that this question is ill-posed.  It seems to make
>>>sense to talk about the number of flows per time T only when average
>>>flow duration << T.  So, flows per hour might make since, assuming
>>>few flows are longer than a few minutes, but flows per second makes
>>>no sense.
>>>
>>>Bob Braden
>>