gNMI dial-in vs. dial-out – Who picks up the phone

2026-06-16 5 min read Technology Streaming-Telemetry Ronny Trommer

I work with people who build network monitoring systems. SNMP Traps, NetFlow and IPFIX, BMP — in all of them the device pushes and the collector listens. And in all of them the device reaches out: nothing has to connect into the fleet.

Then you deploy gNMI dial-in and a colleague asks why this one stream connects the other way around. Good question, and it took me a while to give a honest answer.