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802.1x Port-Based Authentication Overview B-1
Appendix B
802.1x Port-Based Authentication Overview
This appendix provides an overview of802.1x security and configuration. 802.1x is well on its way
to becoming an industry standard, and provides an effective wired and wireless LAN security
solution. Windows XP implements 802.1x natively, and the GSM73xx Level 3 Managed Switch
Software v2 supports 802.1x. The 802.11i committee is specifying the use of 802.1x to eventually
become part of the 802.11 standard.
IEEE 802.1x offers an effective framework for authenticating and controlling user traffic to a
protected network, as well as dynamically varying encryption keys. 802.1x ties a protocol called
EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) to both the wired and wireless LAN media and supports
multiple authentication methods, such as token cards, Kerberos, one-time passwords, certificates,
and public key authentication. For details on EAP specifically, refer to IETF's RFC 2284.
Note: When configuring a wireless access point that is configured to use 802.1x, do not
enable 802.1x on the switch port which the access point is using to connect to the
Ethernet network. The access point will handle the 802.1x authentication.