NetFlow's ability to provide end-to-end visibility over flow paths can be effectively supplemented by NetFlow Border Gateway (News - Alert) Protocol (BGP) Next Hop Support, a feature that enables IT administrators to measure network traffic on a per BGP next hop basis, rather than only exporting data from the next router.

Generally speaking, the feature is particularly useful for Internet service providers that have inked partnership deals with other service providers for fault-protected delivery of traffic.

The valuable nature of BGP Next Hop information was recently detailed in a blog post by Michael Patterson (News - Alert), product manager of Plixer's hallmark Scrutinizer NetFlow Analyzer, who also points out the feature's impact on memory and performance.

Unlike traditional NetFlow exports, the BGP Next Hop feature provides ISPs with the ability to charge customers a higher price per packet for more expensive traffic, says Patterson. Without the flexible NetFlow BGP Next Hop Support in place, ISPs cannot deflect some of the costs that are incurred with expensive trans-oceanic links.

As for its impact on memory, the NetFlow BGP Next Hop Support feature adds 16 bytes to each NetFlow flow record, which results in a memory requirement increase of 16 bytes times the number of flow cache entries that have BGP-controlled prefixes, says Patterson. However, he notes that the performance impact of the feature is "minimal," mostly due to the fact that the BGP Next Hop is fetched from the CEF path only once per flow.

Patterson then turned his attention to BGP reporting, which often necessitates the inclusion of autonomous system data – information that most ISPs require when conducting NetFlow accounting.

"Generally, NetFlow billing is a part of what the service provider is trying to do when they investigate NetFlow BGP support," he wrote. "[Plixer's] service provider module can allow MSPs to do this."

The solution enables permissions to be configured per router, switch, interface, and per login account. The service provider module also includes customizable billing solutions for over usage and invoicing.

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