On 17 Aug 2007, at 23:35, Alex Rubenstein wrote:
Seriously, can I also add that RADIUS interim accounting is almost essential in this scenario. Real world accounting and session boundaries mis-match badly making it almost mandatory to use interim accounting records to get an approximation of what the figures look like from a billing perspective. I'll also add "watch out for missing records" - I've found RADIUS to be the lossiest network protocol per foot of cabling that I've ever used.
I can't say I've seen this.
This sort of thing tends to happen in "wholesale" operations where the downstream has a congested link.
Having collected hundreds of millions of radius packets in my years (hell, we were running PM-2e's in 1996), and have written several accounting collectors, I can't say I agree.
If you follow the specifications properly, unless you have issues with the transmitting device (read: BUG), RADIUS accounting has always been good to me.
You can sometimes improve this situation by transporting the RADIUS requests over some form of TCP tunnel.
And, I've not seen the behavior you describe that requires interim.
DSL and/or cable systems usually have long-held connections that often cross billing boundaries - interim accounting is useful in this scenario. Dialup connections are not usually long enough to warrant interim accounting. regards Hugh