Overview of Login Events and Processes
Because of the different ways that residential and enterprise subscribers connect, the login interactions between the components differ according to the type of subscriber. Because residential customers can connect by PPP, DHCP, or static IP addresses, the interactions between the SRC components differ according to the method of connection that a residential subscriber uses. However, there is only one type of login interaction—the subscriber interface login interaction—for enterprise subscribers.
Logins to plug-ins can occur during the login to the SAE or during the activation of subscriptions. For these processes, many of the interactions between the SRC components are the same regardless of the type of subscriber and the type of connection.
Login Events
Each login process begins with a login event, as described in Table 9.
Summary of the Login Process
The SAE login process is summarized in the steps below. If any of the steps fail, the login process stops, and no subscriber session is created.
- A login event occurs (see Table 9) and triggers the login process.
- In case of a portal login, the SAE invokes the authentication plug-ins to authenticate the request.
- The SAE invokes the subscriber classification script and provides to the script details about the login event (for example, interface name, subscriber IP address if available, login name if available, and login event type).
- The script sends an LDAP query that uniquely identifies a subscriber entry in the directory to the SAE.
- The SAE loads the subscriber entry from the directory and uses the entry to create a subscriber session in memory.
- The SAE queries all configured authorization plug-ins about whether it should allow the login.
- The SAE completes the login process by activating the subscriber's activate-on-login subscriptions.