Cisco Systems® announces the availability of Cisco® Access Registrar 3.5, the flagship Cisco RADIUS authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server for the service provider market. It supports service provider deployment of access services by centralizing AAA information and simplifying provisioning and management.
Cisco Access Registrar is a standards-based Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) and proxy RADIUS server designed for high performance, extensibility, and integration with external data stores and systems.
Table 1. Cisco Access Registrar 3.5 Features
Feature
Description
Authentication
AR supports a wide range of authentication including the latest Extensible Authenticaton Protocol(EAP) methods. Users can be stored in AR's internal database or external directories or databases.
Authorization
AR has user and group authorization. Session limits and IP address pools can be managed centrally, across multiple AR servers.
Accounting
AR's flexible accounting allows accounting records to be stored to local files, to external databases, proxy, or any combination of these methods.
RADIUS Proxy
AR provides rich RADIUS proxy functionality including EAP Proxy, and failover and roundrobin modes.
Customization
AR has the flexibility to implement complex realm and AAA policies used in today's multiple technology service provider environments. AR also provides interfaces for automated configuration provisioning and custom built AAA methods.
Performance
AR's high performance AAA processing increases ROI through lower hardware and server management costs.
NEW FEATURES
The following features are new in Cisco Access Registrar 3.5:
• Expanded platform and OS support for RedHat Linux (with release 3.5.2) and Solaris 9 support (with release 3.5.3)
• Expanded database support for AAA on Oracle 9 and MySQL 4.0
• Packet of Disconnect (PoD) (RFC 3576)
• Cisco Service Selection Gateway prepaid support
• CDMA2000 IS835-C support of PoD during packet data serving node (PDSN) handoff, quality-of-service and remote address accounting attributes, MN-HA Shared Key distribution, prepaid option (with release 3.5.3), and DNS update
• View-only administrator option
• HTTP digest authentication for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Web servers
• Real-time information cache of active users (with release 3.5.2)
UPGRADE PATHS
Customers with Cisco Access Registrar 3.0 can upgrade from AR-BASE-3.0 or AR-UPGRADE-30 to Cisco Access Registrar 3.5 with AR-3.5-UP-K9.
AVAILABILITY
The Cisco Access Registrar 3.5 and associated upgrade kit started shipping June 9, 2004. Customers who want to purchase these products can place orders through their normal sales channels as of June 7, 2004.
Existing Cisco Access Registrar 3.0 customers with current Software Application Support (SAS) contracts can request the Access Registrar 3.5 update kit using their service contract number at www.cisco.com/upgrade/ beginning June 11, 2004.
ORDERING INFORMATION
Table 2. Ordering Information for Cisco Access Registrar 3.5
Part Number
Description
AR-3.5-BASE-K9
Cisco Access Registrar 3.5 base software
AR-3.5-UP-K9
Cisco Access Registrar 3.5 upgrade for existing release 3.0 customers that do not have SAS support
AR-ADD-HLR=
Additional license option for Home Location Registrar proxy feature
AR-ADD-PREPAID=
Additional license option for prepayment
AR-ADD-CPU=
Additional license option for additional CPU
AR-ADD-CACHE=
Additional license option for additional cache
An evaluation copy for this product is also available via the Cisco Software Center. All customers must have Cisco.com access and permission to download encrypted information.
