What Does Remote Monitoring (RMON) Mean?
Remote Monitoring (RMON) is a standard specification that facilitates the monitoring of network operational activities through the use of remote devices known as monitors or probes. RMON assists network administrators (NA) with efficient network infrastructure control and management.
Techopedia Explains Remote Monitoring (RMON)
RMON was initially developed to address the issue of remote site and local area network (LAN) segment management from a centralized location. The RMON standard specifies a group of functions and statistics that may be exchanged between RMON compatible network probes and console managers. RMON performs extensive network-fault detection and provides performance-tuning data to NAs.
RMON collects nine information types, including bytes sent, packets sent, packets dropped and statistics by host. NAs use RMON to determine network user traffic or bandwidth levels and website access information. Additionally, issue alerts may be preconfigured.
RMON uses certain network devices, such as servers, and contains network management applications that serve as clients. RMON controls the network by using its servers and applications simultaneously. When a network packet is transmitted, RMON facilitates packet status viewing and provides further information, in the event that a packet is blocked, terminated or lost.
Two RMON versions are available:
- RMON1: Outlines 10 management information base (MIB) groups for standard network monitoring. MIB groups are viewable in most advanced network hardware.
- RMON2: Focuses on higher traffic layers that exist above the medium access control (MAC) layer, Internet Protocol (IP) and application-level traffic. Facilitates network management applications to track all network layer packets.