RFC 3334 (rfc3334) - Page 3 of 44

Policy-Based Accounting

RFC 3334                Policy-Based Accounting             October 2002


   Service providers have various options for service differentiation,
   charging schemes and the provisioning of accounting services.  The
   applied charging schemes for the provided services are one
   significant feature used by providers to distinguish themselves from
   competitors.  Therefore, providers use different charging schemes and
   may change the schemes in accordance with their business plan.
   Providers can also offer different accounting services (e.g.
   standard, comprehensive, etc.) in order to allow customers/users to
   choose one scheme that meets the customers/users needs.  Furthermore,
   it may be advantageous for a provider to outsource accounting
   functionality to a third party.  Users introduce various traffic
   profiles and may have individual preferences regarding accounting
   services (like itemized invoices, accounting indications, spending
   limits etc.).

   One further challenge for the configuration of accounting services
   are heterogeneous metering and accounting infrastructures within
   provider domains.  Also, the usage of different accounting and
   metering solutions used in different provider networks complicates
   the sharing of configuration parameters (e.g. in roaming scenarios).

   The configuration and dynamic adaptation of the accounting process to
   the business model and specific user demands requires a flexible
   configurable accounting infrastructure.  The utilization of
   standardized policies for the expression of conditions and related
   configuration actions also allows the configuration of heterogeneous
   infrastructures.  For this purpose we propose to use accounting
   policies to configure the accounting infrastructure and use the
   Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) architecture to
   exchange and to deploy these policies.

1.2 Document Scope

   This document describes the structure and usage of accounting
   policies.  It shows how the characteristics of the provider network
   influence the requirements for accounting.  The relations between the
   different roles that are involved in the accounting process and the
   required building blocks for an accounting architecture are
   introduced.  This document describes an architecture and mechanisms
   to configure the accounting service.  It proposes to use the AAA
   protocol for the exchange of accounting configuration information
   expressed in policies.  It does not propose a specific protocol for
   the accounting configuration itself.  The configuration itself can be
   done by existing protocols (e.g. Common Open Policy Service Protocol
   for Support of Policy Provisioning - COPS-PR, Simple Network
   Management Protocol - SNMP, etc.).  Furthermore, it is shown how
   different accounting services can be provided in intra- and inter-
   domain scenarios.  Examples are given for the usage of accounting



Zseby, et. al.                Experimental