RFC 3334 (rfc3334) - Page 1 of 44


Policy-Based Accounting



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                           T. Zseby
Request for Comments: 3334                                     S. Zander
Category: Experimental                                          G. Carle
                                                        Fraunhofer FOKUS
                                                            October 2002


                        Policy-Based Accounting

Status of this Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
   Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes policy-based accounting which is an approach
   to provide flexibility to accounting architectures.  Accounting
   policies describe the configuration of an accounting architecture in
   a standardized way.  They are used to instrument the accounting
   architecture and can be exchanged between Authentication,
   Authorization and Accounting (AAA) entities in order to share
   configuration information.

   This document describes building blocks and message sequences for
   policy-based accounting in the generic AAA architecture (RFC 2903).
   Examples are given for the usage of accounting policies in different
   scenarios.  It is also shown how accounting components can be
   integrated into the AAA authorization framework (RFC 2904).  This
   document does not propose a language for the description of
   accounting policies.  Rather, it is assumed that a suitable policy
   language can be chosen from existing or upcoming standards.

Table of Contents

   1.    Introduction...............................................2
   1.1   Motivation.................................................2
   1.2   Document Scope.............................................3
   2.    Terminology................................................4
   3.    Impact of Provider Network Characteristics on Accounting...7
   4.    Business roles and relations...............................8
   5.    Reference Model and Building Blocks.......................11



Zseby, et. al.                Experimental