802.1X Authentication Procedures; A Comparison Of Eap Relay And Eap Termination - HP 12500 Series Configuration Manual

Multicast trigger mode—The access device multicasts Identity EAP-Request packets periodically
•
(every 30 seconds by default) to initiate 802.1X authentication.
Unicast trigger mode—Upon receiving a frame with the source MAC address not in the MAC
•
address table, the access device sends an Identity EAP-Request packet out of the receiving port to
the unknown MAC address. It retransmits the packet if no response has been received within a
certain time interval.

802.1X authentication procedures

802.1X authentication has two approaches: EAP relay and EAP termination. You choose either mode
depending on the support of the RADIUS server for EAP packets and EAP authentication methods.
EAP relay mode
•
EAP relay is defined in IEEE 802.1X. In this mode, the network device uses EAPoR packets to send
authentication information to the RADIUS server, as shown in
Figure 27 EAP relay
In EAP relay mode, the client must use the same authentication method as the RADIUS server. On
the network access device, you only need to use the dot1x authentication-method eap command
to enable EAP relay.
EAP termination mode
•
In EAP termination mode, the network access device terminates the EAP packets received from the
client, encapsulates the client authentication information in standard RADIUS packets, and uses
PAP or CHAP to authenticate to the RADIUS server, as shown in
Figure 28 EAP termination

A comparison of EAP relay and EAP termination

Packet exchange method
EAP relay
Benefits
•
Supports various EAP
authentication methods.
•
The configuration and processing is
simple on the network access
device
72
Figure 27.
Figure 28.
Limitations
The RADIUS server must support the
EAP-Message and
Message-Authenticator attributes,
and the EAP authentication method
used by the client.