RADIUS

Authorization

Authorization involves using a set of rules or other templates to decide what an authenticated user can do on a system. For example, in the case of an Internet service provider, it may decide whether a static IP address is given as opposed to a DHCP-assigned address. The system administrator defines these rules.

So-called “smart implementations” of AAA servers have logic that will analyze a request and grant whatever access it can, whether or not the entire request is valid. For instance, a dial-up client connects and requests multilink bonding. A generic AAA server will simply deny the entire request, but a smarter implementation will look at the request, determine that the client is only allowed one dial-up connection, and grant the one channel while refusing the other.