Security: 802.1X Authentication
Overview
Cisco 350XG & 550XG Series 10G Stackable Managed Switches
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This is described in the figure below:
A network device can be either a client/supplicant, authenticator or both per port.
Client or Supplicant
A client or supplicant is a network device that requests access to the LAN. The
client is connected to an authenticator.
If the client uses the 802.1x protocol for authentication, it runs the supplicant part
of the 802.1x protocol and the client part of the EAP protocol.
No special software is required on the client to use MAC-based or web-based
authentication.
Authenticator
An authenticator is a network device that provides network services and to which
supplicant ports are connected.
The following authentication methods are supported:
•
802.1x-based—Supported in all authentication modes.
•
MAC-based—Supported in all authentication modes.
•
WEB-based—Supported only in multi-sessions modes.
In 802.1x-based authentication, the authenticator extracts the EAP messages from
the 802.1x messages (EAPOL packets) and passes them to the authentication
server, using the RADIUS protocol.
Client
Client
Authenticaticator
Authentication
Server
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