Cedar 880AG Enterprise Dual-Radio AP/Bridge
6 Security
This chapter contains information on the following topics:
•
Configure RADIUS profile
•
Configure 802.1x authentication
•
Configure MAC authentication
•
Configure Filter to block certain traffic
6.1 Overview
6.1.1 802.1x Authentication
Wireless Networks provide enormous flexibility, but they can also create potential
security problems in the network. Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is an
authentication method that addresses the security issues in the wireless network. It is part
of the 802.1x WLAN standards defined by IEEE.
The IEEE 802.1x specification uses three important terms. The user or client who wants
to be authenticated is called a supplicant. The actual server doing the authentication,
typically a RADIUS server, is called the authentication server. And the device in
between, such as a wireless access point, is called the authenticator. One of the key points
of 802.1x is that the authenticator can be small and simple - all of the processing is done
by the supplicant and the authentication server. This makes 802.1x ideal for wireless
access points, which are typically small and have limited memory and processing power.
Figure 6.1 illustrates a simple 802.1x authentication sequence.
36