APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR OFFLOADING IPFIX LOOKUP AND TRANSLATION OPERATIONS FROM OBSERVATION DOMAINS

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an apparatus, a system, and a method for offloading IPFIX lookup and translation operations from an observation domain. The disclosed method includes: receiving, at an IPFIX collector, a IPFIX message from an IPFIX exporter implemented on a remote device, identifying, within the IPFIX message, a data set exported by the IPFIX exporter implemented on the remote device, identifying, within the IPFIX message, a data-level indicator that indicates whether the data set is (A) a primary data set observed by an observation domain implemented on the remote device or (B) a secondary data set derived by an observation cloud implemented on the remote device, identifying, at the IPFIX collector, a database that corresponds to the data-level indicator identified within the IPFIX message, storing the data set in the database in accordance with the data-level indicator, and then performing an action based at least in part on the data set stored in the database. Various other s