PACKET FLOW MONITORING WITH ATTRIBUTE-TO-IDENTIFIER MAPPING

Example methods and systems for packet flow monitoring are described. In one example, a first computer system may detect a flow of packets along a datapath between a source and a destination and determine source attribute information associated with the source and destination attribute information associated with the destination. The first computer system may perform attribute-to-identifier mapping by (a) mapping the source attribute information to a source identifier having a reduced size compared to the source attribute information, and/or (b) mapping the destination attribute information to a destination identifier having a reduced size compared to the destination attribute information. The first computer system may generate flow information that includes (a) the source identifier identifying the source and/or (b) the destination identifier identifying the destination; and interact with a second computer system, or storage accessible by the second computer system, to enable the second computer system to obtain the flow information.