Issues in the passive approach of network traffic monitoring

This paper deals with the issues arising during network traffic monitoring performed by the passive approach of measurement. It describes the most important characteristics of network traffic, which are usually measured during their monitoring, as well as different approaches for the evaluation of network traffic properties. Current research and development in the field of network monitoring is focused on the abilities to measure various network traffic characteristics. The greatest effort is placed on the maximization of their efficiency and minimization of their impacts on the overall functionality of the network. Since there are many approaches for measuring network traffic properties, only the most commonly used ones will be discussed, i.e. active and passive measurement. The paper is concluded with some notes aimed at the future direction by which should research work proceed.