Mobile IP Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting Requirements
RFC 2977

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Network Working Group                                           S. Glass
Request for Comments: 2977                              Sun Microsystems
Category: Informational                                        T. Hiller
                                                     Lucent Technologies
                                                               S. Jacobs
                                                        GTE Laboratories
                                                              C. Perkins
                                                   Nokia Research Center
                                                            October 2000

  Mobile IP Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting Requirements

Status of this Memo

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

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   The Mobile IP and Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA)
   working groups are currently looking at defining the requirements for
   Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.  This document
   contains the requirements which would have to be supported by a AAA
   service to aid in providing Mobile IP services.

1. Introduction

   Clients obtain Internet services by negotiating a point of attachment
   to a "home domain", generally from an ISP, or other organization from
   which service requests are made, and fulfilled.  With the increasing
   popularity of mobile devices, a need has been generated to allow
   users to attach to any domain convenient to their current location.
   In this way, a client needs access to resources being provided by an
   administrative domain different than their home domain (called a
   "foreign domain").  The need for service from a foreign domain
   requires, in many models, Authorization, which leads directly to
   Authentication, and of course Accounting (whence, "AAA").  There is
   some argument which of these leads to, or is derived from the others,
   but there is common agreement that the three AAA functions are
   closely interdependent.

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RFC 2977               Mobile IP AAA Requirements           October 2000

   An agent in a foreign domain, being called on to provide access to a
   resource by a mobile user, is likely to request or require the client
   to provide credentials which can be authenticated before access to
   resources is permitted.  The resource may be as simple as a conduit
   to the Internet, or may be as complex as access to specific private
   resources within the foreign domain.  Credentials can be exchanged in
   many different ways, all of which are beyond the scope of this
   document.  Once authenticated, the mobile user may be authorized to
   access services within the foreign domain.  An accounting of the
   actual resources may then be assembled.

   Mobile IP is a technology that allows a network node ("mobile node")
   to migrate from its "home" network to other networks, either within
   the same administrative domain, or to other administrative domains.
   The possibility of movement between domains which require AAA
   services has created an immediate demand to design and specify AAA
   protocols.  Once available, the AAA protocols and infrastructure will
   provide the economic incentive for a wide-ranging deployment of
   Mobile IP. This document will identify, describe, and discuss the
   functional and performance requirements that Mobile IP places on AAA
   protocols.

   The formal description of Mobile IP can be found in [13,12,14,17].

   In this document, we have attempted to exhibit requirements in a
   progressive fashion.  After showing the basic AAA model for Mobile
   IP, we derive requirements as follows:

   -  requirements based on the general model
   -  requirements based on providing IP service for mobile nodes
   -  requirements derived from specific Mobile IP protocol needs

   Then, we exhibit some related AAA models and describe requirements
   derived from the related models.

2. Terminology

   This document frequently uses the following terms in addition to
   those defined in RFC 2002 [13]:

      Accounting   The act of collecting information on resource usage
                   for the purpose of trend analysis, auditing, billing,
                   or cost allocation.

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RFC 2977               Mobile IP AAA Requirements           October 2000

      Administrative Domain
                   An intranet, or a collection of networks, computers,
                   and databases under a common administration.
                   Computer entities operating in a common
                   administration may be assumed to share
                   administratively created security associations.