This article helps in understanding the differences between Exporter and Traffic Patterns statistics and what are they used for.
| Exporter Statistic | Traffic Pattern Statistic | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup |  provided by default | requires custom setup |
| Based on | physical infrastructure | logical definition |
| Statistic per | exporters and interfaces | Traffic Patterns, Subnet Sets and Subnets |
| Monitors | traffic on routers, L3 switches and interfaces | specific (custom defined) traffic |
| Analysis focus | whole traffic on specific physical infrastructure | specific traffic between two networks |
| Level of expertise | fast setup and easy statistics | complex setup and statistics |
In general you will use:
- Exporter Statistic when you are interested in monitoring the bandwidth of an interface or exporter (whole traffic passing through the physical infrastructure)
- Traffic Patterns to isolate a specific type of traffic (traffic via specific ports, protocols, AS etc.): YouTube Traffic, certain service traffic, blocked traffic etc.
- Traffic Patterns with Subnet Sets to monitor whole or specific traffic per logical unit: company departments, regional company offices, member organisations, data centre traffic etc.