[c-nsp] Sampled netflow & compliance issues

[Paolo Lucente]

Hi,

On Thu, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:17:54AM +0000, Phil Mayers wrote:
> On 02/09/2012 10:00 AM, Gert Doering wrote:
>
>> Billing using sampled netflow is more where I see problems arising,
>> because you know your numbers will not be accurate, but you don't know
>> how big the error is, and in which direction you err.  With unsampled
>
> Is that true? As indicated, my stats are rusty, but I would have thought  
> it possible to calculate an error bar.

Fully share Gert's point. On the topic there is an interesting position
paper (*) from the InMon guys. It revolves around sFlow but, as long as
random packet sampling is employed for selection, it holds for sampled
NetFlow aswell.

Cheers,
Paolo

(*) http://www.inmon.com/pdf/sFlowBilling.pdf