RMON implements data traffic monitoring and statistics on a network segment or an entire network, which helps to effectively manage large-size networks.
To improve the availability of management information, lighten the burden on the Network Management Station (NMS), and enable the network administrator to monitor multiple network segments, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops RMON to release the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) from the restriction on managing increasingly distributed networks. RMON monitors data traffic on a network segment or an entire network, and enables SNMP to monitor remote network devices more efficiently and proactively. In addition, RMON provides a highly efficient solution to monitor sub-networks. This function decreases the volume of traffic between the NMS and agents and facilitates large-size network management.
RMON is implemented based on the SNMP architecture. Two components are involved in RMON: the NMS and the agent located on each device.