Subject: Re: [[email-masked]: RE: [SIP] draft-calhoun-sip-aaa-req]

From: Pat Calhoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 14:31:17 -0800 (PST)

> >The document has not been discussed in the AAA
> >WG, because AAA is focused on network access
> >requirements.
> 
> Thanks for the clarification! 

Just to make sure that you understand Bernard's clarification, his statement
is that the AAA WG is only focused on network access. The AAA WG is not
concerned with any other WG that may, or may not, wish to make use of AAA. I
believe that SIP is one WG that does require AAA-like services.

> Have felt very uncomfortable with Diameter for
> applications in the <always connected> case for various reasons, not at
> least because of the AVP data format (prefer XML).

We've had this discussion in the past, and I guess we'll have it here as well.
As I understand it, you would like XML to be used in the accounting messages
so users can "view" their accounting records through some standard browser. I
state accounting here because I don't see why users would need to see the
authentication messages on their browsers.

The above, btw, has nothing to do with whether a protocol uses AVPs, TLVs, or
anything else. The fact of the matter is that some XML data needs to be
transported from a SIP server to accounting server. Why would user's using
their browsers care how the accounting records make it from the network
servers? Unless one wishes to use browsers to "sniff" the packets on the
network, it doesn't matter (and the fact that the layers below AAA aren't XML
would cause this to break anyways).

So one can do one of the following:
1. have accounting servers generate XML from accounting information
2. have SIP servers include XML accounting record, embedded within the
protocol, or 3. use an XML-only protocol (and redo lots of roaming and
security work)

Lastly, do users wish to view individual accounting records, with each call
being a separate XML document, or rather a compiled list of network events? As
a user, I really like having a compiled list for me. It seems much simpler
than having to comb through countless documents to get the info I need.

PatC

_______________________________________________
SIP mailing list
[email-masked]
http://lists.bell-labs.com/mailman/listinfo/sip