About Ieee 802.1X - Avaya 9601 Administering

About IEEE 802.1X

9600 Series IP phones support the IEEE 802.1X standard for Supplicant operation and support
pass-through of 802.1X messages to an attached PC. The system parameter DOT1X determines
how the phones handle pass-through of 802.1X multicast packets and proxy logoff:
• When DOT1X = 0, the phone forwards 802.1X multicast packets from the Authenticator to the
PC attached to the phone and forwards multicast packets from the attached PC to the
Authenticator (multicast pass-through). The phone does not support Proxy Logoff. This is the
default value.
• When DOT1X = 1, the phone supports the same multicast pass-through as when DOT1X=0,
but Proxy Logoff is also supported. When the secondary Ethernet interface loses link integrity,
the phone sends an 802.1X EAPOL-Logoff message to the Authenticator with a source MAC
address from the previously attached device. This message alerts the Authenticator that the
device is no longer connected.
• When DOT1X = 2, the phone forwards multicast packets from the Authenticator only to the
phone, ignoring multicast packets from the attached PC (no multicast pass-through). The
phone does not support Proxy Logoff.
• Regardless of the DOT1X setting, the phone always properly directs unicast packets from the
Authenticator to the phone or its attached PC as specified by the destination MAC address in
the packet.
All 9600 Series IP phones support Supplicant operation as specified in IEEE 802.1X, but, as of
software Release 2.0, only if the value of the parameter DOT1XSTAT is 1 or 2. If DOT1XSTAT has
any other value, the phone does not support Supplicant operation.
Unicast 802.1X frames contain the MAC address of the phone as the destination MAC address and
a protocol type of 88-8E hex. IP phones respond to unicast 802.1X frames received on the Ethernet
line interface if the value of DOT1XSTAT is 1 or 2.
IP phones respond to 802.1X frames that have the PAE group multicast address as the destination
MAC address only if the value of DOT1XSTAT is 2. If the value of DOT1XSTAT is changed to 0
from any other value after the Supplicant has been authenticated, an EAPOL-Logoff will be
transmitted before the Supplicant is disabled.
From Release 2.0 onwards, the system parameter DOT1XSTAT determines how the phone handles
Supplicants as follows:
• When DOT1XSTAT = 0, Supplicant operation is completely disabled. This is the default value.
• When DOT1XSTAT = 1, Supplicant operation is enabled, but responds only to received unicast
EAPOL messages.
• When DOT1XSTAT = 2, Supplicant operation is enabled and responds to received unicast and
multicast EAPOL messages.
Note:
If the Ethernet line interface link fails, the 802.1X Supplicant, if enabled, enters the
Disconnected state.
August 2015 Administering Avaya 9601/9608/9611G/9621G/9641G/9641GS IP Deskphones SIP
Comments on this document? infodev@avaya.com
About IEEE 802.1X
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