Acct-Authentic in Accounting-On and Accounting-Off forms of Accounting-Request. Valid?

[Nick Lowe]

Hi Alan,

A BSS is always unique on a per-VAP basis, so that's
per-SSID-per-radio-per-physical-AP.

Does the RADIUS spec prohibit accounting on a per-BSS basis, which is
the basis of how all APs offer service to clients/stations (STAs)?

RFC 3580 does specify that Access-Requests will be scoped to a
per-BSSID/per-SSID basis via the Called-Station-Id, so why not
implement the same behaviour for accounting?

In the Aerohive model, there are no central controllers - each AP is a
RADIUS client.

Without the Called-Station-Id, there is no specificity to an
Accounting-On or Accounting-Off and they become a blunt instrument,
and actually rather useless/meaningless. It doesn't match how APs
actually operate so things should change.

Yes, it has not been traditionally done.

The RADIUS accounting spec was written long before wireless NASes
existed, but I actually think that it would make sense for all
wireless vendors to align to this model - scoping to the BSS with the
Called-Station-Id and sending Accounting-On and Accounting-Off on a
per-BSS basis (which means sent on a physical AP basis, even where
it's actually transmitted by a central controller).

This already happens for Access-Request packets, and
Accounting-Request packets with Start, Interim-Update and Stop with
most vendors in this space via the Called-Station-Id.

Appreciate your thoughts!

Cheers,

Nick