Support for routerbased aggregation is not unique to NetFlow version 9 and later. Routerbased aggregation is available with NetFlow version 8 and version 9. NetFlow is a reporting tool that can be used to measure network bandwidth, Quality of Service (QoS), and performance, among other things.

NetFlow version 9 and later use a templatebased export protocol. The purpose of the templatebased format is to enable future versions of NetFlow to extend services without significantly altering the basic NetFlow export format.

NetFlow version 9 and later contain support for IPv6 flows, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) flows, and multicast flows. Therefore, it is possible with version 9 and later to measure and report on network characteristics beyond basic IPv4 functionality. All versions of NetFlow support IPv4 flows.