CANOGA PERKINS CanogaOS Configuration Guide - Manual (Page 310)

CanogaOS Configuration Guide
Proprietary & Confidential Canoga Perkins Metro Ethernet Switches Page 310 of 350
38 Configuring IEEE 802.1x
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.
38.1.1 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”
38.1.2 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, and the authentication server must support EAP within the native frame format.