Subject: nasreq On Demand Accounting...

From: [email-masked] (Patrice Calhoun)
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 10:45:55 -0800

All,

Given the arguments that have recently been discussed against the use of
On-Demand Accounting, and specifically how it doesn't scale well in an
Inter-Domain network, should it *still* be a requirement?

I believe that NASREQ is the only WG that had such a requirement. Can we
eliminate this from the matrix?

PatC

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From: Matt Holdrege <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:06:21 -0800

>eliminate this from the matrix?

In general, I hope we aren't eliminating requirements simply because
they won't work in Inter-Domain networks. The lion's share of AAA
today is not inter-domain and we shouldn't ignore their requirements
simply because it may not work in theoretical future networks.

Can't we satisfy both inter-domain and intra-domain at least in the
requirements phase of this WG?

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From: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 06:17:40 -0800 (PST)

> requirements phase of this WG?

The reason why I am asking is that Mark Beadles wasn't so sure at the last
meeting that this was still a requirement since it doesn't work in the
inter-domain case. If it is still a requirement, then we should leave it in
the matrix. 

I wasn't proposing that we remove it, I am just looking for concensus, and so
far it looks like it still is a requirement. I would, however, like to ask
what people use this for. For something to remain in a matrix, we should be
able to justify it, and so far I haven't heard any purpose (but I'm sure there
is one).

PatC

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From: Richard Perlman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:23:51 -0800

All:

The ability to "demand" an accounting snapshot should be maintained.  It 
provides a means, currently only available through proprietary methods, to 
verify "state" between a state server and a NAS.  It has been suggested 
that accounting "records" are not useful for maintaining state. I think 
that is a premature statement since we haven't yet actually defined what 
(if we even have such a thing) an accounting record is.

Again, since we are defining requirements and not engineering a protocol. 
I'll try to state the need, rather than the implementation.

It is a requirement that the AAA server be able to query the NAS (AAA 
CLIENT) as to the state of a port or all ports.  The NAS should maintain a 
structure of data elements about each port - similar to how RADIUS 
attributes are maintained in today's environment.  The means of making this 
query is at this time undefined.

Richard