Accounting for policy enforcement decisions in radius systems

A network device, comprising:

• a port to allow reception of a pre-authentication request from a client, wherein the pre-authentication request allows the network to determine if a call is to be granted prior to allocating any resources to the call;
• and
• a processor to:
• apply at least one policy to the request, wherein the policy decision is based upon other factors than capabilities and capacity of the network;
• generate at least one message indicating a policy decision;
• transmit at least one reject message to an accounting system and to the client making the pre-authentication request, if the call is outside the policy, wherein the reject message includes a policy identifier to allow the accounting system to track rejections associated with the policy;
• transmit at least one accept message to an accounting system and to the client making the pre-authentication request, if the call is within policy, wherein the accept message includes a policy identifier to allow the accounting system to track acceptances associated with the policy;
• require the client to transmit the reject message to the accounting system if the call is outside the policy;
• and
• require the client to transmit the accept message to the accounting system if the call is within policy.

An article of machine-readable media containing executable code that, when executed causes the machine to:

• receive a pre-authentication request from a client for a call, wherein the pre-authentication request allows the network to determine if a call is to be granted prior to allocating any resources to the call;
• apply at least one policy to determine a policy decision from the request, wherein the policy decision is based upon other factors than capabilities and capacity of the network;
• transmit at least one reject message to an accounting system configured to track rejection associated with the policy and to the client making the pre-authentication request if the call is outside the policy, wherein the reject message includes a policy identifier identifying the policy applied to the pre-authentication request;
• transmit at least one accept message to the accounting system and to the client making the pre-authentication request if the call is within the policy, wherein the accept message includes the policy identifier to allow the accounting system to track acceptances associated with the policy;
• require the client to transmit the reject message to the accounting system if the call is outside the policy;
• and
• require the client to transmit the accept message to the accounting system if the call is within policy.

A network device, comprising:

• a means for allowing reception of a pre-authentication request from a client at a policy server, wherein the pre-authentication request allows the network to determine if a call is to be granted prior to allocating any resources to the call;
• a means for applying at least one policy to determine a policy decision for the request, wherein the policy decision is based upon other factors than capabilities and capacity of the network;
• a means for generating at least one reject message indicating the policy decision if the call is outside the policy, wherein the reject message includes a policy identifier identifying the policy applied to the request;
• and
• a means for generating at least one accept message if the call is within policy, wherein the accept message includes the policy identifier;
• a means for transmitting the accept message and the reject message to an accounting system configured to track acceptances and rejections associated with the policy and to the client making the pre-authentication request;
• a means for requiring the client to transmit the reject message to the accounting system if the call is outside the policy;
• and
• a means for requiring the client to transmit the accept message to the accounting system if the call is within policy.

A method of accounting in a network, the method comprising:

• generating a pre-authentication request for a call at a client;
• transmitting the pre-authentication request to a policy server;
• applying at least one policy at the policy server to determine a policy decision for the request, wherein the policy decision is based upon factors other than the capabilities and capacity of the network;
• transmitting at least one reject message to an accounting system and to the client generating the pre-authentication request, if the call is outside the policy, wherein the reject message includes a policy identifier to allow the accounting system to track rejections associated with the policy;
• transmitting at least one accept message to the accounting system and to the client making the pre-authentication request, if the call is within policy, wherein the accept message includes a policy identifier to allow the accounting system to track acceptances associated with the policy and network resources are allocated to a call only if the accept message is transmitted;
• requiring the client to transmit the reject message to the accounting system if the call is outside the policy;
• and
• requiring the client to transmit the accept message to the accounting system if the call is within policy.

A network system, comprising:

• a client to generate a pre-authentication request for a call;
• an accounting system configured to track acceptances and rejections associated with individual policies;
• and
• a first policy processor, the first policy processor comprising:
• a processor to:
• apply at least one policy to the request to generate a policy decision, wherein the policy decision is based upon factors other than the capabilities and capacity of the network and wherein the policy decision indicates whether the call is accepted or rejected;
• transmit at least one reject message to the client if the policy decision indicates the call is rejected, wherein the reject message includes a reason for rejection;
• require the client to transmit the reject message to the accounting system if the call is outside the policy;
• transmit at least one accounting stop message to the accounting system if the policy decision indicates the call is rejected, wherein the accounting stop message includes a policy identifier identifying the policy applied to the request and the reason for rejection to allow the accounting system to track rejections associated with the policy;
• transmit at least one accept message to the client if the policy decision indicates the call is accepted;
• require the client to transmit the accept message to the accounting system if the call is within policy;
• and
• transmit at least one accounting start message to the accounting system if the policy decision indicates the call is accepted, wherein the accounting start message includes a policy identifier identifying the policy under which the request was accepted to allow the accounting system to track acceptances associated with the policy, wherein network resources are not committed to the call until the accept message is transmitted.