Subject: Registration of RADIUS Attribute Values and RFC 3575

From: "Bernard Aboba" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:55:27 -0800

Recently on the RADEXT WG mailing list, an issue has been raised about the
IANA allocation procedures for RADIUS attribute values:

 <http://ops.ietf.org/lists/radiusext/2009/msg00625.html>
http://ops.ietf.org/lists/radiusext/2009/msg00625.html

As noted in RFC 3575, Section 2.1:

   Certain attributes (for example, NAS-Port-Type) in RADIUS define a

   list of values to correspond with various meanings.  There can be 4

   billion (2^32) values for each attribute.  Additional values can be

   allocated by the Designated Expert.  The exception to this policy is

   the Service-Type attribute (6), whose values define new modes of

   operation for RADIUS.  Values 1-16 of the Service-Type attribute have

   been allocated.  Allocation of new Service-Type values are by IETF

   Consensus.  The intention is that any allocation will be accompanied

   by a published RFC.

Given the above text, it is my understanding that according to RFC 3575,
additional values for RADIUS attributes (with the exception of the
Service-Type attribute (6)) are to be allocated by Designated Expert. 

However, within the IANA RADIUS registry ( <http://www.iana.org/protocols/>
http://www.iana.org/protocols/) RADIUS attribute values are listed as
requiring Standards Action.   All in all, a substantial number of the
entries in this registry appear to be incorrect. 

Given that RFC 3575 specifically indicates that standards action is not
required for allocation of values for any RADIUS attribute other than
Service-Type, there is not much room for interpretation here and I would
like to make sure that this problem is corrected as soon as possible.   We
have notified IANA, but so far we have not gotten any response.