Distributed user Management & Billing System.

Abstract

The project is a complex Client/ Server development that is designed to meet the needs of a billing system at an ISP (Internet Service Provider). The project has undertaken the RADIUS protocol as the core of the system, and deployed it by adding complex rating, credit checks and bill cycle capabilities, that are not part of the standard implementation. It involved the setup of the environment, development of the RADIUS modules, Administrative front-end modules and deployment of the host database. The RADIUS Server has been coded in the C Language usmg the GCC Compiler. The standard implementation of RADIUS is enhanced by adding database connectivity to it. The database used for this project is PostgreSQL, which is an open-source database platform. The front-end of the system is used to manage the system activities, including Users, Packages and Dealers. It is also used to add money to the users accounts, and shows the current and historical user usage profiles. The development of the system has been done on the Sun Solaris 8 for Intel platform. In addition, utilities such as SUDO and a webserver, Apache has also been deployed on this system. The coding of the Front-End is done using the PHP language on the Apache Web Server. 1bis includes the Administrative and Customer Front-End modules. In addition, a number of utilities have also been developed that compliment the working of the system.