RADIUS overview

RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) connection layer is an Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) protocol that is a predecessor to Diameter. From a Diameter Plug-In perspective, it is another connection layer function that appears identical to DCL to a DRL from a signaling perspective. RADIUS shares some similarities with Diameter, but is different in many ways. In particular, the transport/connection layer where UDP is most commonly used by RADIUS. In that regard, RADIUS is primarily supported on the diameter router by a new connection layer, while using the existing routing services (with minor enhancements) and the existing Diameter-based message interface to/from DRL.

The RADIUS Connection Layer (RCL) allows DSR to interface with RADIUS clients and servers. RADIUS clients initiate transactions, RADIUS servers route/process transactions received from clients and send responses. The RADIUS protocol primarily uses UDP, a connectionless datagram transport service, as a transport layer between peer nodes. The concept of a RADIUS connection is introduced by RCL, which allows reuse of most of the existing connection-oriented features and infrastructure with minimal change. Due to the RADIUS client-server model and how RADIUS connections are defined, a RADIUS connection is unidirectional; for example, DSR can either send or receive RADIUS transactions on a RADIUS connection, but it cannot do both. In this regard, RADIUS connections are configured as either client or server as follows:

RADIUS Client Connection
RADIUS Server Connection

See the following for RADIUS configuration information:

The key differences between the RADIUS and diameter protocols and RADIUS functionality details are explained in RADIUS User's Guide. That document also contains information about RADIUS message processing, Diameter message processing, RADIUS transaction processing, RADIUS connection management, Shared Secret Encryption, and DRL message processing.

See Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) for more information about OAM, the GUI pages nested under the Administration, Configuration, Alarms & Events, Security Log, Status & Manage, and Measurements menu options. OAM Help explains how to use these GUI pages to view and manage the basic operation, administration, and maintenance for the application.