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Streaming Telemetry: gNMI, OpenConfig, gRPC

SNMP polling at 60-second intervals misses microbursts and loads the control plane. OcNOS streams model-driven telemetry over gRPC instead: OpenConfig-modelled paths, on-change or sampled, to a collector that dials in or that the router dials out to, feeding Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Grafana without a translation layer.

Telemetry Pipeline

OcNOS routers stream gNMI Subscribe payloads (gRPC dial-out) to a central collector. The collector demuxes into time-series and search backends, and Grafana renders the dashboards on top.

Streaming telemetry topology: OcNOS routers streaming gNMI dial-out to a collector that fans out to Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Grafana
Streaming telemetry: gNMI dial-out from OcNOS into a collector, fanned out to Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Grafana.

Why streaming telemetry replaced SNMP

SNMP poll cycles miss microbursts, hammer the control plane, and can't deliver a structured, model-driven payload. gNMI Subscribe over gRPC inverts the model: the device pushes typed updates on change or on a sample interval, the collector simply parses the protobuf. OcNOS exposes the full OpenConfig tree plus IETF and IP Infusion native models, and supports both dial-in (collector connects to device) and dial-out (device connects to collector behind NAT) deployments.

The OcNOS streaming telemetry implementation

Stream, once, and poll

Subscribe RPC in stream, once, and poll modes. Sampled streaming since OcNOS 6.5.1, on-change streaming since 7.0.0, so a collector can take a periodic feed or only the deltas.

OpenConfig + IETF + native

OpenConfig interfaces, network-instance, BGP, and platform models; IETF YANG where ratified; native models for OcNOS-specific state. Models are versioned and published.

Behind-NAT routers

gRPC dial-out lets cell-site and edge routers behind NAT push telemetry to a central collector, with no inbound port-opening required.

Path-addressed state

Interface counters, routing state, and platform health are addressed by YANG path. Wild-card keys in the sensor path (since 6.6.0) select every interface or neighbour in one subscription.

JSON_IETF + Protobuf

Both JSON_IETF and protobuf encodings are supported. Protobuf wins on wire efficiency for high-fanout sensors; JSON wins on debuggability.

Telegraf + gNMIc

gNMI is an open specification, so standard collectors such as the Telegraf gNMI input and gNMIc consume the OcNOS stream and hand it to Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Grafana.

The gNMI RPC surface in OcNOS

gNMI is a small gRPC service with four RPCs: Capabilities, Get, Set, and Subscribe. Telemetry is the Subscribe RPC. The table lists what OcNOS implements and the release that introduced it, as recorded in the Feature Matrix.

Subscribe, dial-in

The collector opens the gRPC session to the router over IPv4 or IPv6 and subscribes to paths. gNMI specification 0.10.0.

Since OcNOS 6.4.1

Subscribe, dial-out

The router opens the session to the collector through a gRPC tunnel, so routers behind NAT or a firewall need no inbound port.

Since OcNOS 6.5.1

Once and poll modes

A one-shot snapshot of the subscribed paths, or a subscription the collector polls on its own schedule, alongside continuous streaming.

Since OcNOS 6.5.1

On-change streaming

Updates only when a value changes, for state such as interface operational status, BGP session state, and route counts.

Since OcNOS 7.0.0

Get RPC and wild-card paths

Point reads through gNMI Get, and wild-card keys in the sensor path so one subscription covers every interface or every neighbour.

Since OcNOS 6.6.0

TLS, authentication, in-band

TLS on the gRPC session, user authentication on the gNMI server (since 7.0.0), and in-band operation in one or several VRFs.

Since OcNOS 6.6.0

OpenConfig models

OpenConfig data models over gNMI, with OpenConfig support in the NETCONF path since 6.0.0, so the same model tree serves configuration and telemetry.

Since OcNOS 6.5.1

What you get with OcNOS telemetry

  • Standards-aligned paths. OpenConfig leaf paths match what your existing collector already expects, with no proprietary YANG translation layer.
  • Change-driven visibility. On-change subscriptions report a state transition when it happens, not at the next poll, and sampled subscriptions run at the interval the collector asks for.
  • Open collector stack. Standard gNMI collectors, Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Grafana work as they do for any other gNMI source.
  • Single config surface. Same gNMI server speaks Get, Set, and Subscribe: telemetry and config-as-code share one auth and TLS path.
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Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between streaming telemetry and SNMP?
SNMP polls the device on a fixed cycle and can miss microbursts while loading the control plane. With gNMI streaming telemetry the device pushes structured, model-driven updates on change or on a sample interval, so the collector simply parses the payload.
What gNMI subscription modes does OcNOS support?
OcNOS supports the gNMI Subscribe RPC in stream, once, and poll modes, with sample-interval streaming since OcNOS 6.5.1 and on-change streaming since 7.0.0, over dial-in (the collector connects to the router, since 6.4.1) and dial-out (the router connects to the collector, since 6.5.1).
Can OcNOS stream telemetry from routers behind NAT?
Yes. gRPC dial-out lets cell-site and edge routers behind NAT push telemetry to a central collector with no inbound ports opened. OcNOS also supports dial-in where the collector connects to the device.
What data can gNMI stream from OcNOS?
Any state the OpenConfig and native YANG models expose, addressed by path. Wild-card keys in the sensor path select whole tables at once, such as every interface or every BGP neighbour, and the sample interval is set per subscription.
Which collectors work with OcNOS telemetry?
gNMI is an open specification, so any standard gNMI collector consumes the OcNOS stream: the Telegraf gNMI input, gNMIc, and the collectors built into observability platforms. From there the data lands in Prometheus, InfluxDB, or Grafana like any other time series.
Datasheet and Solution Briefs

Go deeper. Take it with you.

Two short, technical downloads that go further than this page: the full OcNOS-SP datasheet and the full OcNOS-DC datasheet.

Datasheet

OcNOS-SP Datasheet

Full OcNOS-SP specification: the access, cell site and aggregation feature set, software SKUs, supported hardware platforms, and the solution ordering guide.

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Datasheet

OcNOS-DC Datasheet

Full OcNOS-DC specification: the EVPN-VXLAN and Ethernet for AI feature set, software SKUs, supported hardware platforms, and the solution ordering guide.

Get the datasheet