yfi_draft_permanent_users

YFi Permanent Users

Definition

A permanent user is a person known to you.
Since you know them, there can be a level of trust between you and the said user.

Chillispot + Coova Chilli Limitation

• The attributes ChilliSpot-Max-[whatever]-Octets has a limitation of around 1GB of data.
• The latest version of Coova Chilli feature a carry attribute to incorporate higher values.
• When a user logs into Chillispot there is no way to fetch updated reply attibute values from FreeRADIUS for said user.

EG A user log in and recieve a 500MB cap, to top up the cap they have to first log out gain.

Permanent User approach

• Each NAS device defined should have a way to disconnect a user.
• We make use of this mechanism to disconnect users.
• A Permanent User's cap will be checked by the FreeRADIUS Perl module's accounting part. - Cap gets checked upon each accounting update (also on authentication).
• A Permanent User can have a Hard Cap or Soft Cap.
• They will be notified when the cap gets depleted X%.
• Hard Caps gets disconnected upon depletion and can't reconnect.
• Soft Caps gets notified upon delpetion.
• Soft Caps may be billed at a higher rate on extra usage.

Disadvantages of this approach

• Accuracey - Time between accounting updates may overshoot some values defiend by the cap.

Advantages of this approach

• On the fly top-up.
• Generic implementation. Each nas device is tied to a type. Depending on the type of device YFi decides how to disconnect the user.
• Extreme large data caps are possible.

Conclusion

Since permanent users should be more trusted the overshoot problem will only affect Hard Cap users on accuraccy.
The overshoot can be determined and they could be billed for it.
Advantages using this approach for permanent users outweight disadvantages, making this ideal approach for Permananet Users.