AA ISA allows cflowd records to be exported to an external cflowd collector. The cflowd collector parameters (such as IP address and port number) are configured per application assurance group. Operators can choose to export cflowd records directly inband on a configurable VLAN from AA or via the CPM, similar to the way system cflowds are exported. By exporting directly inband, a higher rate of cflowd records can be exported compared to export via CPM, as inband export by-passes CPM and therefore avoids the CPM bottleneck that could potential lead to cflowd packets discards. All cflowd records collected are exported to the configured collectors. AA ISA supports cflowd Version 10/ IPFIX.
A cflowd record is only exported to the collector after the flow is closed/terminated.
For each of the supported cflowd templates described in this section, the operator can customize which fields to include in the exported templates. For example, an operator can include the following fields: flow attributes, HTTP/SNI hostname, AA protocol/application/application-group, and DEM-related fields.
volume statistics
AA ISA allows an operator to collect per flow volume statistics to be exported for any group partition. The packet sampling rate is configurable per AA- ISA-group level. For example, a packet sample rate of 10 means that one of every 10 packets is selected for volume statistics collection. If a flow has at least a single packet sampled for cflowd volume statistics, its per-flow cflowd volume record is exported to the configured collector upon flow closure.
The volume cflowd record includes flow statistics, flow related L3 to L7 information such as IP 5tuple, and a large set of fields that the operator can selectively choose from to include in the exported volume cflowd records; for example, flow duration, application ID, application group ID, device information, flow attributes, HTTP/SNI hostname, and so on.
comprehensive statistics
AA ISA allows an operator to collect per flow comprehensive statistics to be exported through cflowd v10/IPFIX.
Unlike AA volume cflowd, which is packet sampled and enabled at the AA-partition level, (covering all traffic within a partition, which prohibits the use of high sampling rates), AA comprehensive flow uses a flow (instead of packet) sampling cflowd mechanism, and allows operators to target applications and application groups for sampling. Therefore, providing finer control at the application/application group level, instead of at the partition level (which is the case for volume cflowd).
The operator can decide to collect comprehensive statistics for sampled flows within an enabled group-partition application/application group. The operator can specify parameters to include in the exported comprehensive cflowd record, such as applications/application groups, host fields (applicable to HTTP traffic only), subscriber device type (when available), flow duration, device information, flow attributes, HTTP/SNI hostname, and so on, as well as other general statistics such as a flow's byte or packet counts.
The flow sampling rate is configurable on a per-ISA group level. For example, a flow sample rate of 10 means that every 10th flow is selected for comprehensive statistics collection. Anytime a flow is sampled (selected for comprehensive statistics collection), its mate flow in the reverse direction is also selected. The two flows are exported in a single cflowd record.
Per-flow comprehensive can be enabled (or disabled), using one of two configurable sampling rates, per application/app-group per partition per AA ISA-group.
Applications or application groups selected for comprehensive statistics gathering can use one of these two sampling rates. For example, important applications are assigned high sampling rates, while other applications are subjected to a lower flow sampling rate.
TCP application performance
AA ISA allows an operator to collect per flow TCP performance statistics to be exported through cflowd v10/IPFIX.
The operator can decide to collect TCP performance for sampled flows within a TCP enabled group-partition-application/application-group. The flow sampling rate is configurable on per ISA-group level. For example a flow sample rate of 10 means that every 10th TCP flow is selected for TCP performance statistics collection. Anytime a flow is sampled (selected for TCP performance statistics collection) its mate flow in reverse direction is also selected. This allows collectors to correlate the results from the two flows and provide additional statistics (such as round-trip delay). Per-flow cflowd TCP performance records are exported to the configured collectors upon flow closure.
Two configurable TCP flow sampling rates are available per AA ISA group. Applications or application groups selected for TCP performance monitoring can use of one these two sampling rates. For example, important applications are assigned high sampling rates, while other TCP applications are subjected to TCP performance monitoring using a lower flow sampling rate.
Per-flow TCP performance can be enabled (or disabled), using one of two configurable sampling rates, per application/app-group per partition per AA ISA-group.
audio/video (A/V) application performance
AA ISA integrates a third party audio/video performance measurement software stack to perform VoIP and video conferencing MOS-related measurements for RTP based A/V applications.
A passive monitoring technology estimates transmission quality of voice and video over packet technologies by considering the effects of packet loss, jitter and delay in addition to the impairments caused by encoding/decoding technology. A rich set of diagnostic data is provided that can be used to help network managers identify a variety of problems that could impact the quality of voice and video streams or service level agreements (SLAs).
This feature provides:
call quality analysis using optimized ITU-T G.107, such as listening and conversational quality MOS and R-factor scores (MOS-LQ, MOS-CQ R-LQ and R-CQ)
measurements of perceptual effects of burst packet loss and recency using ETSI TS 101 29-5 Annex E Extensions
reporting of RTCP XR (RFC 3611, RTP Control Protocol Extended Reports (RTCP XR)) VoIP metrics payloads
After a flow terminates, AA ISA formats the flow MOS parameters into a cflowd record and forwards the record to a configured IPFIX /10 cflowd collector. The collector then summarizes these records using route of interest information (source/destinations). In addition, RAM provides the user with statistics (minimum, maximum, and average values) for the different performance parameters that are summarized.
Two configurable RTP flow sampling rates are available per AA ISA group. Applications or Application groups selected for RTP performance monitoring can use one of these two sampling rates. For example, important applications (such as Cisco’s Telepresence video conferencing or operator’s VoIP service) are assigned high sampling rates, while other RTP applications are subjected to RTP performance monitoring using a lower flow sampling rate.
Like TCP performance, per flow audio/video performance can be enabled (or disabled), using one of two configurable sampling rates, per application/app-group per partition per AA ISA-group.
The operator can decide to collect RTP A/V performance for sampled RTP flows within an RTP A/ V enabled group-partition-application/application-group. The two available flow sampling rates is are configurable on per ISA group level. For example a flow sample rate of 10 means that every 10th RTP flow is selected for RTP performance statistics collection. Anytime a flow is sampled (selected for RTP A/V performance statistics collection) its mate flow reverse direction is also selected. When RTP dynamic payload types (RTP ‟PT”) are used, only flows that use SIP to signal RTP codec can be selected for RTP performance measurement. Flows that use static RTP payload types can be selected for performance measurement regardless of the signaling channel used to setup the call.