Cisco® Access Registrar is the leading 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 RADIUS and proxy RADIUS server designed for high performance, extensibility, and integration with external data stores and systems. It provides an ideal solution for service providers with mobile wireless, public WLAN, broadband, dial, and voice over IP (VoIP) services networks.
Table 1 lists the features of the Cisco Access Registrar 4.0.
Table 1. Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 Features
Feature
Description
Authentication
Cisco Access Registrar supports a wide range of authentication including the latest Extensible Authenticaton Protocol (EAP) methods. Users [NOTE: User information?] can be stored in its internal database or external directories or databases.
Authorization
Cisco Access Registrar has user and group authorization. Session limits and IP address pools can be managed centrally, across multiple Cisco Access Registrar servers.
Accounting
Cisco Access Registrar's flexible accounting allows accounting records to be stored to local files, to external databases, proxy, or any combination of these methods.
RADIUS Proxy
Cisco Access Registrar provides rich RADIUS proxy functions including EAP Proxy, and failover and Round Robin modes.
Customization
Cisco Access Registrar has the flexibility to implement complex realm and AAA policies used in today's multiple-technology service provider environments. It also provides interfaces for automated configuration provisioning and custom-built AAA methods.
Performance
Cisco Access Registrar's high-performance AAA processing increases return on investment (ROI) through lower hardware and server management costs.
NEW FEATURES
The following features are new in Cisco Access Registrar 4.0:
• Support for Expanded EAP with Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling (FAST) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) draft 16
• Change of Authorization support per RFC 3576
• RADIUS query of identity session cache-In addition to Extensible Markup Language (XML) query, this version adds RADIUS query of the real-time information cache of active users
• Web-based GUI-Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 introduces a GUI for basic configuration tasks, session display, statistics, and log monitoring
• Windows Domain authentication-Cisco Access Registrar can now authenticate requests to a Windows database
• Capability to specify multiple RADIUS clients with a single definition
• Expanded platform and OS support for RedHat Linux (with Release 4.0.2) and Solaris 9 support (with Release 4.0.3)
• Expanded database support for AAA on Oracle 9 and MySQL 4.0
• Packet of Disconnect (PoD) per RFC 3576
• Cisco Service Selection Gateway prepaid support
• Code Division Multiple Access 20000 (CDMA2000) IS835-C support of PoD during packet data serving node (PDSN) handoff, quality of service (QoS) and remote address accounting attributes, Mobile Node-Home Agent shared key distribution, prepaid option (with Release 4.0.3), and Domain Name System (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 4.0.2)
UPGRADE PATHS
Customers with Cisco Access Registrar 3.0 can upgrade from AR-BASE-3.0 or AR-UPGRADE-30 to Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 (Table 2).
AVAILABILITY
The Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 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 Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 update kit using their service contract number at http://www.cisco.com/upgrade beginning June 11, 2004.
ORDERING INFORMATION
Table 2. Ordering Information
Part Number
Description
AR-4.0-BASE-K9
Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 base software
AR-4.0-UP-K9
Cisco Access Registrar 4.0 upgrade for existing release 1.X and 3.X customers that do not have SAS support
AR-ADD-HLR=
Additional license option for Home Location Registrar (HLR) 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 through the Cisco Software Center. All customers must have Cisco.com access and permission to download encrypted information.
