Explainer: Telemetry Meaning, Basics, Applications, and More

What is telemetry meaning and what are its impacts on the current network environments for us? We explained this in this article.

Introduction:

Network telemetry has become a common technical term to describe network data gathering and consumption strategies. A variety of network telemetry techniques and protocols are extensively used. Network telemetry enables independent entities to collect data from network devices, which may then be viewed and analyzed to aid in network monitoring and operation. 

As the software-defined networking network grows in size, it must carry more and more services, and customers have raised their expectations. Data monitoring, in particular, necessitates better precision sampling to detect and modify microburst traffic efficiently. Traditional network monitoring technologies have low management efficiency and are incapable of meeting user needs. Telemetry technology has been created to overcome these needs and implement large-scale and high-performance monitoring on network devices to address these shortcomings. 

What is Telemetry Meaning? 

Network Telemetry refers to both the data itself and the techniques and processes used to generate, export, collect, and consume that data for use by other applications. In the broader prospect, network visibility refers to management tools' capacity to see the status and behavior of a network, which is required for successful network operation. Whereas, Network telemetry is concerned with network data that can be generated and obtained through a variety of techniques, including but not limited to network instrumentation and measurements, and that can be processed for purposes ranging from service assurance to network security using a wide range of data analytical techniques.

Telemetry allows the intelligent O&M system to manage more devices, get monitoring data in real-time with greater precision, and have no impact on device functionalities and performance. Telemetry is also the most crucial big data foundation for quick issue identification and network quality optimization. In simple words, the telemetry meaning can be stated in two ways:

• It is a technique that allows for network insight and efficient and automated network administration which includes a wide range of approaches for remote data production, collection, correlation, and consumption.

• Telemetry data is any information that can be extracted from networks (including the data plane, control plane, and management plane) and used to gain visibility or as a basis for actions.

Data Monitoring with Telemetry:

Network telemetry extends the scope of traditional network OAM. For example, network telemetry is expected to provide the necessary network information for autonomous networks while also addressing the drawbacks of traditional OAM methodologies. When it comes to data related to telemetry, it can include a variety of types of information including End-to-end measurements including unidirectional delays, values for configuration and operational parameters, current values of various counters, any data about the current state of network packet samples or mirrored traffic stream, round-trip time and more. Server memory utilization and I/O load over time are two other metrics that are commonly used when it comes to telemetry data.

This is especially true when implementing server virtualization. In some circumstances, virtual server statistics may not reflect CPU or memory utilization difficulties; the underlying physical server may be oversubscribed in terms of virtualization, CPU, I/O connectivity with drives and peripherals, or physical memory. Application exceptions, database failures or warnings, application server logs for odd activity, weblogs suggesting worrisome requests, and so on should all be monitored. This is the first step toward tracking security indicators in your application.

How Telemetry Works:

Telemetry operates as a critical mechanism within network operations, intricately intertwined with network data analytics. Its primary role is to facilitate the automation of network processes by harnessing extensive and coherent network data. However, relying solely on data derived from a single, unchanging source often proves insufficient to cater to the diverse data demands of telemetry applications.

To overcome this limitation, the integration of multiple data sources becomes imperative. This integration necessitates the adoption of various approaches and standards, all of which are orchestrated within a cohesive framework. This framework serves a multifaceted purpose: It classifies and organizes the array of telemetry data sources and types, defines the constituents of a network telemetry system and their interconnections, and streamlines the assimilation of diverse telemetry methodologies across different layers. The outcome of this approach is two-fold: It enables adaptable data amalgamations tailored to specific applications, while simultaneously establishing uniform and simplified interfaces.

At its core, a telemetry framework functions as a nexus for all endeavors related to telemetry, originating from disparate sources and working groups within the IETF. This approach is most efficient when constructing a comprehensive network telemetry system, as it curbs redundancy and wasteful efforts. In the context of applications, the concept of elastic network telemetry surfaces is aimed at optimizing the utilization of network resources while mitigating the potential impact of network telemetry processing. For instance, routine network monitoring is best executed by encompassing the entire network with a low data sampling rate. The escalation of telemetry data source updates and data rates should be reserved for instances where anomalies or significant trends emerge, ensuring a balanced approach to resource allocation and overall network performance management.

This article focused on telemetry meaning and its basics and we hope now you have understood the foundation of this tech.