Controller-less WLANs

Q:

What is the behavior of IAP when accounting interval is set to 0?

While configuring RADIUS accounting in Instant Access points, accounting interval option allows you to set an accounting interval within the range of 0–60 minutes for sending interim accounting information to the RADIUS server.

When we set the accounting interval to 0, IAP will NOT send the Input / Output bytes values when the client is active on the network. If you were to run a report on ClearPass with accounting interval set to 0 in IAP, then you would not see Input & Output values. Values for Input & Output bytes consumed will be sent with the RADIUS accounting stop. 

With accounting interval set to 0 on IAP, an example ClearPass report for guest users shows that :

1. Input / Output bytes show 0 for an active session i.e End-time is NULL. 

2. When the client session ends, i.e RADIUS accounting stop records End-time along with Input / Output bytes. 

On the other hand, if you set the accounting interval to anywhere between 1 and 60 minutes, IAP will send the interim update, as configured.

With accounting interval set to 5 minutes on IAP, an example ClearPass report for guest users shows that :

1. Consumed Input / Output bytes when the client session is active i.e when the End-time is NULL.