RADIUS Accounting
RFC 2139

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Network Working Group                                          C. Rigney
Request for Comments: 2139                                    Livingston
Obsoletes: 2059                                               April 1997
Category: Informational

                           RADIUS Accounting

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document describes a protocol for carrying accounting
   information between a Network Access Server and a shared Accounting
   Server.

Implementation Note

   This memo documents the RADIUS Accounting protocol.  There has been
   some confusion in the assignment of port numbers for this protocol.
   The early deployment of RADIUS Accounting was done using the
   erroneously chosen port number 1646, which conflicts with the "sa-
   msg-port" service.  The officially assigned port number for RADIUS
   Accounting is 1813.

Table of Contents

   1.     Introduction ..........................................    2
      1.1       Specification of Requirements ...................    3
      1.2       Terminology .....................................    3
   2.     Operation .............................................    4
   3.     Packet Format .........................................    5
   4.     Packet Types ..........................................    7
      4.1       Accounting-Request ..............................    7
      4.2       Accounting-Response .............................    8
   5.     Attributes ............................................   10
      5.1       Acct-Status-Type ................................   11
      5.2       Acct-Delay-Time .................................   12
      5.3       Acct-Input-Octets ...............................   13
      5.4       Acct-Output-Octets ..............................   14
      5.5       Acct-Session-Id .................................   14
      5.6       Acct-Authentic ..................................   15
      5.7       Acct-Session-Time ...............................   16
      5.8       Acct-Input-Packets ..............................   16

Rigney                       Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 2139                   RADIUS Accounting                  April 1997

      5.9       Acct-Output-Packets .............................   17
      5.10      Acct-Terminate-Cause ............................   18
      5.11      Acct-Multi-Session-Id ...........................   20
      5.12      Acct-Link-Count .................................   21
      5.13      Table of Attributes .............................   22
   Security Considerations ......................................   24
   References ...................................................   24
   Acknowledgements .............................................   24
   Chair's Address ..............................................   24
   Author's Address .............................................   25

1.  Introduction

   Managing dispersed serial line and modem pools for large numbers of
   users can create the need for significant administrative support.
   Since modem pools are by definition a link to the outside world, they
   require careful attention to security, authorization and accounting.
   This can be best achieved by managing a single "database" of users,
   which allows for authentication (verifying user name and password) as
   well as configuration information detailing the type of service to
   deliver to the user (for example, SLIP, PPP, telnet, rlogin).

   The RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) document [4]
   specifies the RADIUS protocol used for Authentication and
   Authorization.  This memo extends the use of the RADIUS protocol to
   cover delivery of accounting information from the Network Access
   Server (NAS) to a RADIUS accounting server.

   Key features of RADIUS Accounting are:

      Client/Server Model

         A Network Access Server (NAS) operates as a client of the
         RADIUS accounting server.  The client is responsible for
         passing user accounting information to a designated RADIUS
         accounting server.

         The RADIUS accounting server is responsible for receiving the
         accounting request and returning a response to the client
         indicating that it has successfully received the request.

         The RADIUS accounting server can act as a proxy client to other
         kinds of accounting servers.

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RFC 2139                   RADIUS Accounting                  April 1997

      Network Security

         Transactions between the client and RADIUS accounting server
         are authenticated through the use of a shared secret, which is
         never sent over the network.