Cardinality
The number of distinct values present in a telemetry attribute or label dimension, a major determinant of observability storage and query cost.
Measurement and Interpretation Boundary
Telemetry cardinality refers to distinct label or attribute values, not simply the number of emitted metric samples.
Related Observability Concepts
- Metric
- OpenTelemetry
- Time Series
- Attribute
Source
- https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/metrics/