Real-time Accounting and Disconnection in an IEEE 802.1x-based Prepaid Micropayment Mechanism

Abstract

Emerging web-based applications usually demand micropayment as their accounting and billing processes. Among existing micropayment systems, the AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) systems are most popular. However, AAA can only support postpaid mechanisms. The time-based and stateless characteristics of AAA limit a variety of applications. We propose a prepaid micropayment mechanism with real-time accounting and disconnection under the IEEE 802.lx protocol. We implemented the proposed real-time disconnection and accounting mechanism in an IEEE 802.1x environment built with FreeRADIUS [5] and HostAP [7]. Five scenarios are designed to test the feasibility and correctness of the proposed real-time disconnection and accounting mechanism. Testing results indicate that our developed mechanism can correctly execute the disconnection and accounting in real time. Finally, some potential applications for the developed mechanism are further discussed.