CANOGA PERKINS 9175 Configuration Guide - Manual (Page 250)

CanogaOS Configuration Guide
39-1
39 Configuring IEEE 802.1x
39.1 Overview
The IEEE 802.1x standard defines a client-server-based access control and
authentication protocol that prevents unauthorized clients from connecting to a LAN
through publicly accessible ports unless they are properly authenticated. The
authentication server authenticates each client connected to a switch port before making
available any services offered by the switch or the LAN.
39.2 References
The 802.1x module is based on :
IEEE 802.1X-2004 Port-Based Network Access Control
RFC2284 “PPP Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)”
RFC2865 “Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)”
RFC2869 “RADIUS Extensions”
39.3 Terminology
Following is a brief description of terms and concepts used to describe the 802.1x
protocol:
Supplicant System
The device (PC) that requests access to the LAN and switch services and responds to
requests from the switch. The workstation must be running 802.1X-compliant client
software such as xsupplicant in Linux.
Authentication Server
Performs the actual authentication of the client. The authentication server validates the
identity of the client and notifies the switch whether or not the client is authorized to
access the LAN and switch services. Because the switch acts as the proxy, the
authentication service is transparent to the client. In this release, the Remote
Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) security system with Extensible
Authentication Protocol (EAP) extensions is the only supported authentication server.
RADIUS operates in a client/server model in which secure authentication information is
exchanged between the RADIUS server and one or more RADIUS clients.
Authenticator
Controls the physical access to the network based on the authentication status of the
client. The switch acts as an intermediary (proxy) between the client and the
authentication server, requesting identity information from the client, verifying that
information with the authentication server, and relaying a response to the client. The
switch includes the RADIUS client, which is responsible for encapsulating and
decapsulating the EAP frames and interacting with the authentication server. When the
switch receives EAPOL frames and relays them to the authentication server, the
Ethernet header is stripped and the remaining EAP frame is re-encapsulated in the
RADIUS format. The EAP frames are not modified or examined during encapsulation,