37 aaa, Overview, Introduction to aaa – H3C Technologies H3C WX6000 Series Access Controllers User Manual
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AAA
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Overview
Introduction to AAA
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) provides a uniform framework for configuring
these three security functions to implement network security management.
AAA usually uses a client/server model, where the client runs on the network access server (NAS) and
the server maintains user information centrally. In an AAA network, a NAS is a server for users but a
client for the AAA servers, as shown in
.
Figure 37-1 AAA networking diagram
When a user tries to establish a connection to the NAS and to obtain the rights to access other networks
or some network resources, the NAS authenticates the user or the corresponding connection. The NAS
takes the responsibility to transparently pass the user’s AAA information to the server (RADIUS server,
for example). The RADIUS protocol defines how a NAS and a server exchange user information
between them.