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Network Parameters
Private IP Address Assignment vs. IP Upsell
The AP-2500 will provide a DHCP lease for any subscriber with DHCP client enabled. Typically this will be a private IP
address assigned from the AP’s primary DHCP address pool. However, some customers my require a public, routable
IP address to support all of their Internet programs. Some applications require a public IP address to function properly
over the Internet (such as certain VPN applications, on-line gaming, and Web hosting). Customers who require a
public IP address may be willing to pay a premium for this service.
You can provide two address pools to your customers: one private and one public.
If you have a pool of public IP addresses that you can distribute, you can offer standard customers less expensive
private IP addresses and premium customers public IP addresses. This concept is known as
IP Upsell
.
Note that a subscriber needs to have DHCP enabled to use the IP Upsell feature. This option will be unavailable to
customers whose computers have a static IP address. Also, a subscriber may need to reboot his/her computer for the
new public address to take effect (the ICC automatically informs the user of this requirement).
How IP Upsell Works
When a subscriber first connects to the AP, the AP provides a private DHCP lease from its primary pool. This lease
has an expiration time of five minutes.The lease time is user configurable; minimum lease time is 60 seconds (
see
DHCP Pool
).
When the subscriber selects a billing plan that provides a public IP address, the AP forwards the subscriber’s DHCP
request to either the DHCP server internal to the AP or to an external DHCP server.
If the subscriber is logging in through a RADIUS account, then the Nomadix-IP-Upsell Vendor Specific Attribute (VSA)
can be added to subscriber’s RADIUS user information and passed back to the AP. This would still have the same
sequence for IP lease handout (that is, private address for five minutes and then public after authentication).
After selecting a plan (private or public address), the client’s lease time is determined by the DHCP server that
assigned it an address (if the AP assigns it an address from one of its pool, the lease time is determined by the
configured
Lease Time
parameter).
Billing for IP Upsell
To ensure optimal use of IP Upsell, be sure to configure at least one billing plan that offers public IP addresses (you
can configure up to six different billing plans). See
Billing Options for Subscribers
for detailed instructions on how to
configure the billing plans.
Notes Concerning IP Upsell
•
If you use RADIUS, add the Vendor Specific Attribute for IP Upsell to your subscribers’ RADIUS profiles. See
Install and Configure RADIUS
and
RADIUS Messages and RADIUS Attributes
for details.
•
If you want to let customer dynamically upgrade from a private IP billing to a public IP plan, enable ICC. See
Information and Control Console (ICC)
for details.
•
If you use external authentication, you can add an
IP_Type
attribute to the
User_Add
XML command and specify
the address type (public or private), as shown in the following example:
<USG COMMAND=”USER_ADD” MAC_ADDR=”0050da554787”>
<USER_NAME>johndoe</USER_NAME>
<PASSWORD ENCRYPT=”FALSE”>doededoe</PASSWORD>
<EXPIRY_TIME UNITS=”SECONDS”>3600</EXPIRY_TIME>
<ROOM_NUMBER></ROOM_NUMBER>
<PAYMENT_METHOD>CREDIT_CARD</PAYMENT_METHOD>
</IP_Type>PUBLIC</IP_Type>
<CONFIRMATION></CONFIRMATION>
<PAYMENT>4.95</PAYMENT>
</USG>
See
XML Interface Specification
for more information.
Enabling Private IP Address Assignment with Internal DHCP Server
Follow these steps to configure the AP to assign private IP addresses from the default DHCP Pool (see
DHCP Pool
).
This is the default configuration.
1. Click
Configure
>
Network
>
DHCP Server
