Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller Software Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE 26.1.x

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Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller Software Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE 26.1.x

RADIUS call station identifier

Updated: April 10, 2026

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Explains how RADIUS call station identifiers are used in network access scenarios to specify the network endpoint a client attempts to access and how this information supports authorization policies.

A RADIUS call station identifier is an attribute in the RADIUS protocol that

  • allows a Network Access Server (NAS) to specify information about the endpoint (the called station) that a client is trying to access

  • is included in Access-Request packets (as Called-Station-Id), and

  • enables network policies by providing context for authorization decisions.

Use cases

  • In dial-up scenarios, the attribute can contain the phone number dialed by the user. The NAS captures this attribute in the Access-Request packet using Dialed Number Identification (DNIS) or similar technology.

  • For IEEE 802.1X authenticators (wired or wireless network access), the attribute can contain the MAC address of the bridge or AP, formatted as ASCII text.

Role in RADIUS authorization

  • The RADIUS server can use this attribute to define which MAC addresses, network segments, or called stations a client is allowed to access.

  • The RADIUS server can restrict or allow access based on the network resource or location to which the client is connecting. However, this is possible only in configurations that support preauthentication. In these configurations, a client attempts to authenticate before fully connecting.

The Called-Station-Id attribute enables the NAS to specify to the RADIUS server which endpoint or resource the client is requesting. The server uses this information to enforce connection policies.

Note

The Called-Station-Id attribute applies only to Access-Request packets, not to Access-Accept or CoA-Request packets.

Feature history for RADIUS call station identifier

This table provides release and related information for the feature explained in this module.

This feature is also available in all the releases subsequent to the one in which they are introduced in, unless noted otherwise.

Table 1. Feature history for RADIUS call station identifier

Release

Feature Information

Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1

The RADIUS called station identifier configuration is enhanced to include more attributes. The newly added options for authentication and accounting are:

  • policy-tag-name

  • flex-profile-name

  • ap-macaddress-ssid-flexprofilename

  • ap-macaddress-ssid-policytagname

  • ap-macaddress-ssid-sitetagname

  • ap-ethmac-ssid-flexprofilename

  • ap-ethmac-ssid-policytagname

  • ap-ethmac-ssid-sitetagname

For more information on the attributes listed above, see the commands:

Configure a RADIUS call station identifier

Set a custom call station identifier (Called-Station-ID) for RADIUS authentication and accounting messages sent from the device.

Use this task to specify a policy tag name or identifier in RADIUS messages for better tracking or policy assignment.

Procedure

1.

Enter global configuration mode.

Example:

Device# configure terminal
2.

Configure a call station identifier sent in the RADIUS authentication messages.

Example:

Device(config)# radius-server attribute wireless authentication call-station-id policy-tag-name
3.

Configure a call station identifier sent in the RADIUS accounting messages.

Example:

Device(config)# radius-server attribute wireless accounting call-station-id policy-tag-name

The specified policy tag name is now included as the Called-Station-ID in all RADIUS authentication and accounting messages.