Summary

MUSE has revisited the concept of AAA, and  authentication in particular, in the context of a multi-service, multi-provider Broadband Access network. With the current approach taken to authentication, subscriber management is based on static line recognition or on PPP-based authentication. This becomes too limited for this new context, where multiple subscribers and providers can share a line, and at the same time  a migration from PPP-based connectivity is under way while configuration is changing to a DHCP-based approach. Hence new solutions are required.

The first part of this white paper presents a framework for AAA with emphasis on the requirements and the possible authentication scenarios. An important distinction must be made between cases with support of nomadism and those without. In the second part, possible solutions are evaluated and compared based on how they respond  to the requirements of the different scenarios and their intrinsic qualities. The solutions reviewed are 802.1X, CAPWAP, 802.1AE + 802.1af, PANA, and EAP-DHCP. Note that most are not finalized yet in standardisation. At the time of writing, EAP-DHCP looks like a suitable candidate for addressing the authentication needs, provided that it will comply with the identified protocol requirements.