Configuring RADIUS Accounting

The device supports RADIUS Accounting (per RFC 2866) and sends accounting data of SIP calls as call detail records (CDR) to a RADIUS Accounting server. CDR-based accounting messages can be sent upon call release, call connection and release, or call setup and release. This section lists the CDR attributes for RADIUS accounting.

The following figure shows the interface between the device and the RADIUS server, based on the RADIUS Accounting protocol. For each CDR that the device sends to the RADIUS server, it sends an Accounting-Request Stop with all the CDR attributes. When the RADIUS server successfully receives all the CDR attributes, it responds with an Accounting-Response Stop ACK message to the device. If the device doesn't receive the Accounting-Response ACK message, it can resend the Accounting-Request Stop with all CDR attributes again, up to a user-defined number of re-tries (see Configuring RADIUS Packet Retransmission).

There are two types of data that can be sent to the RADIUS server. The first type is the accounting-related attributes and the second type is the vendor specific attributes (VSA):

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Standard RADIUS Attributes (per RFC): A typical standard RADIUS attribute is shown below. The RADIUS attribute ID depends on the attribute.

The following figure shows a standard RADIUS attribute collected by Wireshark. The bottom pane shows the RADIUS attribute information as sent in the packet; the upper pane is Wireshark's interpretation of the RADIUS information in a more readable format. The example shows the attribute in numeric format (32-bit number in 4 bytes).

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Vendor-specific RADIUS Attributes: RADIUS attributes that are specific to the device (company) are referred to as Vendor-specific attributes (VSA). The CDR of VSAs are sent with a general RADIUS ID of 26 to indicate that they are vendor-specific (non-standard). In addition, the company's registered vendor ID (as registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority or IANA) is also included in the packet. The device's default vendor ID is 5003, which can be changed (see Configuring the RADIUS Vendor ID). The VSA ID is also included in the packet.

The following figure shows a vendor-specific RADIUS attribute collected by Wireshark. The bottom pane shows the RADIUS attribute information as sent in the packet; the upper pane is Wireshark's interpretation of the RADIUS information in a more readable format. The example shows the attribute in string-of-characters format.

You can customize the prefix title of the RADIUS attribute name and ID. For more information, see Customizing CDRs for SBC Calls .

To configure the address of the RADIUS Accounting server, see Configuring RADIUS Servers. For all RADIUS-related configuration, see RADIUS-based Services.

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To configure RADIUS accounting:

Open the Call Detail Record Settings page (Troubleshoot menu > Troubleshoot tab > Call Detail Record folder > Call Detail Record Settings).

Configure the following parameters:

●

From the 'Enable RADIUS Access Control' [EnableRADIUS] drop-down list, select Enable.

●

From the 'RADIUS Accounting Type' [RADIUSAccountingType] drop-down list, select the stage of the call that RADIUS accounting messages are sent to the RADIUS accounting server.

●

From the 'AAA Indications' [AAAIndications] drop-down list, select whether you want Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) indications.

For a detailed description of the parameters, see RADIUS Parameters.

Click Apply, and then restart the device with a save-to-flash for your settings to take effect.

The table below lists the RADIUS Accounting CDR attributes included in the communication packets transmitted between the device and a RADIUS server.

Default RADIUS Accounting CDR Attributes

Attribute ID

Attribute Name

Vendor-Specific Attribute (VSA) ID

Description

Value Format

Example

AAA

Request Attributes

user-name

(Standard)

Account number or calling party number or blank

String up to 15 digits long

5421385747

Start Acc
Stop Acc

nas-ip-address (for IPv4)

nas-ipv6-address (for IPv6)

(Standard)

IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) of the requesting device

Numeric

192.168.14.43 (IPv4)

Start Acc
Stop Acc

service-type

(Standard)

Type of service requested

Numeric

1: login

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-incoming-conf-id

SIP call identifier

Up to 32 octets

h323-incoming-conf-id=38393530

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-remote-address

IP address of the remote gateway

Numeric

Stop Acc

h323-conf-id

H.323/SIP call identifier

Up to 32 octets

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-setup-time

Setup time in NTP format 1

String

h323-setup-time=09:33:26.621 Mon Dec 2014

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-call-origin

Originator of call:

■

"answer": Call originated from the incoming leg

■

"originate": Call originated from the outgoing leg

String

h323-call-origin=answer

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-call-type

Protocol type or family used on this leg of the call. The value is always "VOIP".

String

h323-call-type=VOIP

Start Acc
Stop Acc

h323-connect-time

Connect time in NTP format

String

h323-connect-time=09:33:37.657 UTC Mon Dec 08 2015

Stop Acc

h323-disconnect-time

Disconnect time in NTP format

String

Stop Acc

h323-disconnect-cause

Disconnect cause code (Q.850)

Numeric

h323-disconnect-cause=16

Stop Acc

h323-gw-id

Name of the gateway

String

h323-gw-id=<SIP ID string>

Start Acc
Stop Acc

sip-call-id

SIP Call ID

String

sip-call-id=abcde@ac.com

Start Acc
Stop Acc

call-terminator

Terminator of the call:

■

"yes": Call terminated by the outgoing leg

■

"no": Call terminated by the incoming leg

String

call-terminator=yes

Stop Acc

terminator

Terminator of the call:

■

"answer": Call originated from the incoming leg

■

"originate": Call originated from the outgoing leg

String

terminator=originate

Stop Acc

called-station-id

(Standard)

Destination URI

String

8004567145

Start Acc

calling-station-id

(Standard)

Source URI

String

5135672127

Start Acc
Stop Acc

acct-status-type

(Standard)

Account Request Type:

■

"1" (start): Sent in Call Start or Call Connect CDRs

■

"2" (stop): Sent in Call End CDRs only.

Note: It is highly recommended to add this attribute if you are customizing the RADIUS CDR format (see Customizing CDRs for SBC Calls and Test Calls for SBC calls).

Numeric

Start Acc
Stop Acc

acct-delay-time

(Standard)

No. of seconds tried in sending a particular record

Numeric

Start Acc
Stop Acc

acct-input-octets

(Standard)

Number of octets received for that call duration (applicable only if media anchoring)

Numeric

Stop Acc

acct-output-octets

(Standard)

Number of octets sent for that call duration (applicable only if media anchoring)

Numeric

Stop Acc

acct-session-id

(Standard)

A unique accounting identifier that corresponds to the acct-status-type attribute and thus, the identifier of the start CDR is identical to the stop CDR ID of the same call.

This attribute is composed of the Session ID of the call (e.g., [SID=9be7fc:152:99757]) followed by a colon (:) and the leg ID (e.g., 9be7fc:152:99757:1 for the SBC incoming leg or Gateway call, and 9be7fc:152:99757:2 for the SBC outgoing leg).

String

34832

Start Acc
Stop Acc

acct-session-time

(Standard)

For how many seconds the user received the service

Numeric

Stop Acc

acct-input-packets

(Standard)

Number of packets received during the call

Numeric

Stop Acc

acct-oputput-packets

(Standard)

Number of packets sent during the call

Numeric

Stop Acc

nas-port-type

(Standard)

Physical port type of device on which the call is active

String

0: Asynchronous

Start Acc
Stop Acc

Response Attributes

h323-return-code

103

The reason for failing authentication (0 = ok, other number failed)

Numeric

0 Request accepted

Stop Acc

acct-session-id

(Standard)

A unique accounting identifier – match start & stop

String

Stop Acc

Below is an example of RADIUS Accounting, where non-standard parameters are preceded with brackets:

Accounting-Request (4)
user-name = 111
acct-session-id = 1
nas-ip-address = 212.179.22.213
nas-port-type = 0
acct-status-type = 2

acct-session-time = 1
acct-input-packets = 122
acct-output-packets = 220
called-station-id = 201
calling-station-id = 202

// Accounting non-standard parameters:
(4923 33) h323-gw-id = 
(4923 23) h323-remote-address = 212.179.22.214
(4923 1) h323-ivr-out = h323-incoming-conf-id:02102944 600a1899 3fd61009 0e2f3cc5
(4923 30) h323-disconnect-cause = 22 (0x16)
(4923 27) h323-call-type = VOIP
(4923 26) h323-call-origin = Originate
(4923 24) h323-conf-id = 02102944 600a1899 3fd61009 0e2f3cc5