While I agree that, based on what was posted here, it sounds like Robert's
system has some flaws (I hope he isn't doing simultaneous use control based
ONLY on RADIUS Packets - that's flawed) I do think port numbers should be
differentiated. So, let's look at the RFC:
5.5. NAS-Port
Description
This Attribute indicates the physical port number of the NAS which
is authenticating the user. It is only used in Access-Request
packets. Note that this is using "port" in its sense of a
physical connection on the NAS, not in the sense of a TCP or UDP
port number. Either NAS-Port or NAS-Port-Type (61) or both SHOULD
be present in an Access-Request packet, if the NAS differentiates
among its ports.
A summary of the NAS-Port Attribute format is shown below. The
fields are transmitted from left to right.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Length | Value
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Value (cont) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Type
5 for NAS-Port.
Length
6
Value
The Value field is four octets. Despite the size of the field,
values range from 0 to 65535.
Ok. Now, unless you plan to have more than 999 ports PER SLOT soon, I
propose the following format:
XXYYY - where XX is the slot, and YYY is the port number.
Say port five on slot 4 would be 04005 - port 4005. I belive the slots
are numbered 00-09 (I know, the ethernet, etc, have slot numbers - I'm
taking physical slots.) One advantage to this is immediately knowing
what slot a port is in. 9096 is port 96, slot 9. 96 is port 96, slot 0.
We've already heard that phase 2 for the PM-4 is supposed to be 3 T3, or
12 T1s per card instesd of 4. So reserving 96 ports isn't a good plan -
it will need to be changed. Numbering based on slot and port means you
could carry the same scheme for more than 10 slots (possibly future product
growth - say a PM-4 with 15/16 slots and no AC power slots - which are wasted
space in a telco rack). And up to 999 ports - so when they release a T3 card
for ISDN/DS0 use with 672 ports on a card, it is covered. If they ever go
to more than 999 you can double up slots - 00/01, 02/03, etc. It will keep
the port unique.
-MZ
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