Internet DRAFT - draft-aravind-radext-message-bundling
draft-aravind-radext-message-bundling
RADIUS EXTensions Working Group Sanal Kumar Kariyezhath
INTERNET-DRAFT Aravind Prasad Sridharan
Intended Status: Standards Track Chandra Mohan
Expires: February 5, 2016 DELL
August 4, 2015
RADIUS Message Bundling
draft-aravind-radext-message-bundling-00
Abstract
This draft proposes a mechanism to bundle multiple RADIUS requests in
a single RADIUS Message which could assist in improving the overall
performance and scalability.
Status of this Memo
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Copyright and License Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Implementation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5 IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1 Introduction
Currently, RADIUS Messages that are exchanged between the Network
Access Server/Authenticator and RADIUS Server (Authentication Server)
allows only one RADIUS request per message. When there are a large
number of RADIUS requests to be sent from the Authenticator, then it
can affect its performance as separate RADIUS message needs to be
sent for each request.
Typically implementation specific reliability mechanism is required
to ensure message delivery for each RADIUS message. This may be
costlier with respect to performance if multiple RADIUS requests need
to be sent at the same time. Scalability is also affected by the
performance bottlenecks of current RADIUS limitation. The above
mentioned problem is very significant in the deployment scenarios of
802.1x supplicants where thousands of supplicants need to be
authenticated at the same time. This can happen in the events such as
NAS restart or the port flaps to which the supplicants are connected.
1.1 Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
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document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
2 Solution
In the single RADIUS Message, accommodate multiple RADIUS requests
instead of just one request. Each request would contain its own set
of Code, Packet Identifier, Length, Authenticator and Attribute Value
Pairs fields. No new message types or TLVs are introduced and hence
server can support this proposal with minimal changes. According to
RFC 2865 [RFC2865] that details the RADIUS protocol, the maximum
message size is 4096 bytes. Hence, we can piggyback the requests up
to this maximum length.
One bundling mechanism could be that we can have a timeout T in
milli-seconds to pack multiple requests and send out the RADIUS
message. Trigger for sending the RADIUS message can be either the
maximum message length or timeout T.
RADIUS Message
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----+
| Request-1 | Request-2 | Request-3 | ... |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----+
Contents of each Request in RADIUS Message
+------+-----------+--------+---------------+------+
| Code | Packet ID | Length | Authenticator | AVPs |
+------+-----------+--------+---------------+------+
All the existing RADIUS Codes, Attributes and Specifications can be
used without any modifications.
3 Implementation Considerations
This bundling mechanism is applicable to the RADIUS Messages sent to
and from the RADIUS Server.
The current RADIUS Server implementations expect only a single
request in a RADIUS message. Hence, before using this mechanism, the
implementation on the other side MUST be upgraded to support this
bundling mechanism. Hence, the Client/Network Access Server MUST use
this mechanism only after upgrading the RADIUS Server implementation
and vice versa from the RADIUS Server to the Client/Network Access
Server.
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4 Security Considerations
This document does not introduce any new security concerns or any
other specifications referenced in this document.
5 IANA Considerations
No IANA actions required.
6 References
6.1 Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2865] Rigney, C., Willens, S., Rubens, A., and W. Simpson,
"Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)",
RFC 2865, June 2000.
[RFC3575] Aboba, B., "IANA Considerations for RADIUS (Remote
Authentication Dial In User Service)", RFC 3575,
July 2003.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
[RFC6158] DeKok, A. and G. Weber, "RADIUS Design Guidelines",
BCP 158, RFC 6158, March 2011.
[RFC6929] DeKok, A. and A. Lior, "Remote Authentication Dial In User
Service (RADIUS) Protocol Extensions", RFC 6929,
April 2013.
6.2 Informative References
[RFC6613] DeKok, A., "RADIUS over TCP", May 2012.
[RFC2868] Zorn, G., Leifer, D., Rubens A., Shriver, J.,
Holdrege, M., Goyret, I, "RADIUS Attributes for Tunnel
Protocol Support", June 2000
[RFC6929] DeKok, A. and Lior , A., "Remote Authentication Dial-In
User Service RADIUS) Protocol Extensions", April 2013.
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INTERNET DRAFT RADIUS Message Bundling August 4, 2015
[RFC5080] Nelson, D. and DeKok. A., "Common Remote Authentication
Dial In User Service (RADIUS) Implementation Issues and
Suggested Fixes"
[RFC2867] Zorn, G., Aboba, B. and Mitton, D., "RADIUS Accounting
Modifications for Tunnel Protocol Support", June 2000.
[RFC5997] DeKok. A., "Use of Status-Server Packets in the
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)
Protocol", August 2010.
Authors' Addresses
Sanal Kumar Kariyezhath
DELL
Olympia Technology Park
Guindy, Chennai 600032
India
Phone: +91 4058643
Email: Sanal_Kumar_Sivarama@dell.com
Aravind Prasad Sridharan
DELL
Olympia Technology Park
Guindy, Chennai 600032
India
Phone: +91 9884612715
Email: aravind_sridharan@dell.com
Chandra Mohan
DELL
Olympia Technology Park
Guindy, Chennai 600032
India
Phone: +91 9894517847
Email: chandru.dav@gmail.com
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