A system and method for monitoring packetized traffic flow in a network and enabling approximation of the rate information of a network flow. The method for monitoring network traffic flow includes receiving, at a network packet flow collector device, packetized traffic flow signals to be monitored; sampling said received packetized traffic flow signals in time to form an approximation of the packet flow rate in time; generating packet flow activity data comprising data representing the sampled traffic flow signals sampled in time; communicating the packet flow activity data to a network packet flow analyzer device and processing the flow activity data to form signals representing an approximate version of the network traffic flow in the network, the analyzer processing the traffic flow signals for reconstructing the rate of the netflow as a function of time. The flow analyzer then generates a compressed version of the network traffic flow signals in the network, the compressed network traffic flow signals comprising relevant approximation of the packet flow rate in time.