Protocol Description

RMON is a portable implementation of the Remote Network Monitoring Protocol that conforms to RFC 2819. The RMON software provides remote monitoring of network segments from a central network manager by using an embedded probe that monitors all of the segments to which the network device is connected. RMON provides network administrators with comprehensive network-fault diagnosis, planning, and performance-tuning information. Remote probe devices perform the data collection and processing, which reduces the SNMP traffic on the network and the processing load on the management station. Instead of continuous polling, information is only transmitted to the management station, when required.

RMON provides standard information that you can use to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot a group of distributed LANs. The standard information includes:

• Packets sent

• Bytes sent

• Packets dropped

• Statistics by host collected by conversations between two sets of addresses

• Certain kinds of events that have occurred

RMON supports these monitoring functions:

• Ethernet statistics, which monitor the flow and type of packets over the specific port

• Ethernet history collection, which shows the flow of packets for a particular interval of time

• Alarms, which monitor the packet size and trigger specified events when the packet count increases or decreases

• Events, which trigger the event types (none, log, or trap)