Subject: WG Review: Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (aaa)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 09:40:13 -0500

A new IETF working group has been proposed in the General Area.
The IESG has not made any determination as yet. 

The following Description was submitted, and is provided for
informational purposes only:

Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (aaa)
--------------------------------------------------
 
 Current Status: Active Working Group
 
 Chair(s):
     Brian Lloyd <[email-masked]>
     Paul Krumviede <[email-masked]>
 
 General Area Director(s): 
     Fred Baker  <[email-masked]>
 
 General Area Advisor: 
     Fred Baker  <[email-masked]>
 
 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:[email-masked]
     To Subscribe:      [email-masked]
         In Body:       subscribe aaa-wg
     Archive:           http://www.merit.edu
 
Description of Working Group:

The Authentication, Authorization and Accounting working group will 
focus on the specification of a general Authentication, Authorization, 
and Accounting protocol for the Internet.  The purpose behind creating a
general AAA protocol for the Internet is to create a common base 
protocol for a number of specific AAA applications. These include at 
least IP Telephony, SS7 AAA, Bandwidth Broker AAA, and Network Access 
Server AAA. By creating a general base Protocol, the amount of work to 
create a specific AAA protocols will be reduced.

The list of target applications implies a strong interaction with many
areas of IETF activity, which is the justification for doing this work 
in the General Area. The working group will dialog specifically with the
Application, Transport, and Security Areas, and others as needed, to
achieve its objectives.

The problem space for a general AAA working group contains work in:

- determining the current set of specific applications that the AAA will
  service;

- documenting requirements for a base AAA architecture;

- identifying the capabilities and limitations of protocols currently 
  used to transport AAA information, e.g. RADIUS, Diameter, COPS, etc.

- selecting a transport protocol or set of transport protocols to be
  used by a general AAA protocol based on the requirements,

- selecting the framework for the AAA protocols;

- specifying the base AAA protocol;

- specifying the data formats for information contained in the AAA 
  protocol information for authentication, authorization, and
  accounting;

- identify the relationship and interaction between Policy and
  Authorization.

The first step in this working group is to determine the requirements 
for the AAA base protocol, and probable uses of that protocol. Once the
requirements have been documented, the working group will be rechartered 
to implement to those requirements. A close second is to consider 
proposals of base protocols; ideally, the working group should be able 
to finalize requirements and review proposals during its second meeting.

The working group will target the use of TCP and defined procedures on 
UDP. When a transaction transport protocol has been developed elsewhere 
in the IETF, the working group will consider changing from TCP and UDP 
to that protocol.