title: Netflow gives absurd values in bps
body: <p>I have been using netflow to collect n/w data and dumped it into my db.</p>
  
  <p>Netflow gives me NoOfBytes transfered as well as Traffic speed (bps). But, there seems to be inconsistency between this.</p>
  
  <p>My formula to calculate bps is :</p>
  
  <pre><code>(NoOfBytes * 8) / (end_time - start_time) sec
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But, this doesnt hold for the records which I have received in netflow.</p>
  
  <p>Here are some records from my DB.</p>
  
  <pre><code>*************************** 1. row ***************************
     LinkID: 128
   Protocol: 6
   SourceIP: 10.1.0.236 
   DestinationIP:  10.36.35.190 
   SourcePort: 80
   DestPort: 4930
   NoOfBytes: 783
   insertTime: 2013-08-05 00:03:21
   StartTime: 2013-08-05 00:00:43
   EndTime: 2013-08-05 00:00:44
   Trafficbps: 92117
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>***********************</strong> 2. row <strong>***********************</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code> LinkID: 128
   Protocol: 6
   SourceIP:10.1.0.236 
   DestinationIP:10.36.35.190 
   SourcePort: 80
   DestPort: 4916
   NoOfBytes: 783
   insertTime: 2013-08-05 00:00:49
   StartTime: 2013-08-04 23:58:09
   EndTime: 2013-08-04 23:58:10
   Trafficbps: 78300
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the above rows, we can see that the NoOfBytes transferred is very less that what is shown in Trafficbps. Can anyone explain me the concept please ?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <p>As per the suggestion from below comment by JMurphy, let me assume the bps values to be correct. </p>
  
  <p>Now my doubt is, suppose a collect data for a span of 5 minuted and collect all the flows. Here, what would be the total bandwidth utilized ?</p>
  
  <p>Would it be the <strong>sum</strong> of all bps or the <strong>max</strong> of all bps or the <strong>average</strong> of them ? </p>