Radius

Radius is an AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) protocol originally developed by Livingston (now part of Lucent) for their dialup servers. (See: Radius Server History) Because the Radius protocol includes the capability of being easily extended, it has been used for many purposes beyond it’s initial design target.

Today Radius is used for:

• Network Access Servers (dialup and broadband)
• PacketCable RKS servers
• VOIP Billing data collection
• etc.

Diameter is a next generation Radius like protocol that hasn’t gotten much traction yet.

Radius RFCs

• RFC 2138 Obsolete – Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)
• RFC 2139 Obsolete – Radius Accounting
• RFC 2548 Microsoft Vendor-specific RADIUS Attributes
• RFC 2809 Implementation of L2TP Compulsory Tunneling via RADIUS
• RFC 2865 Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)
• RFC 2866 RADIUS Accounting
• RFC 2867 RADIUS Accounting Modifications for Tunnel Protocol Support
• RFC 2868 RADIUS Attributes for Tunnel Protocol Support
• RFC 2869 RADIUS Extensions
• RFC 2882 Network Access Servers Requirements: Extended RADIUS Practices
• RFC 3162 RADIUS and IPv6

See Also:

• Radius Servers