FaxBack Port Server RADIUS Support (RFC 2865, 2866) - Manual (Page 42)

FaxBack Proprietary and Confidential Page 42 of 58
Accounting-Requests
Session Lifecycle
When the port server billing database (BillingDb) is configured to use the RADIUS interface, the
port server will send RADIUS Accounting packets at three significant stages during the lifecycle of
a session:
•
When a send or receive session for a client is authorized
(Acct-Status-Type = Start)
•
When the client makes first contact with the port session server
(Acct-Status-Type = Alive-Interim-Update)
•
When the session has ended
(Acct-Status-Type = Stop)
For every session where an Accounting Start packet is sent, the port server will send an
Accounting Stop packet. The Accounting Alive packet is sent only if the client contacts the port
session server in a timely manner in the early stage of a session.
The port server expects a response from all Accounting-Requests that it sends, however, the fax
session cannot be modified based on a response from the RADIUS server.
Both Start and Alive-Interim-Update requests are considered informative but not critical; if the port
server does not receive an Accounting-Response (after exhausting all retries) the fax session will
proceed normally nonetheless.
A failure to receive an Accounting-Response for a Stop packet is considered a critical error, and
the port server will continue to resend the Stop packet indefinitely until it receives an Accounting-
Response. The port server will continue to accept new send and receive fax sessions even if
there are problems saving CDRs. If CDRs cannot be saved through RADIUS (or any interface), a
backlog of CDRs will accumulate as XML files saved to the local hard-drive, but they will not be
lost.
The following minimum information is present in all Accounting packets (the Accounting Stop
packet contains more information, explained below). Note that even when “UUID Mode” is
enabled to manage some Access-Requests with a UUID instead of a name, Accounting packets
always include the account name.
•
The account name
(RADIUS defined attribute User-Name)
•
The fax number (fax send) or DID (fax receive)
(FaxBack vendor-specific attribute FB-Dial-Number)
•
A flag that specifies whether the session is Send or Receive
(FaxBack vendor-specific attribute FB-Is-Send)
•
The start date and time of the session
(FaxBack vendor-specific attribute FB-Start-Time)
•
The session id string
(RADIUS defined attribute Acct-Session-Id)
Send Fax Stages