The Work Mechanism Of 802.1X - Edge-Core ES4624-SFP Manual

needing to access the LAN via the authentication server system, and deal with
the authenticated/unauthenticated state of the controlled port according to the
result of the authentication. The authenticated state means the user is allowed
to access the network resources, the unauthenticated state means only the
EAPOL messages are allowed to be received and sent while the user is
forbidden to access network resources.
2. controlled/uncontrolled ports
The authenticator system provides ports to access the LAN for the supplicant
systems. These ports can be divided into two kinds of logical ports: controlled ports and
uncontrolled ports.-
The uncontrolled port is always in bi-directionally connected status, and mainly
used to transmit EAPOL protocol frames, to guarantee that the supplicant
systems can always send or receive authentication messages.
The controlled port is in connected status authenticated to transmit service
messages. When unauthenticated, no message from supplicant systems is
allowed to be received.
The controlled and uncontrolled ports are two parts of one port, which means
each frame reaching this port is visible on both the controlled and uncontrolled
ports.
3. Controlled direction
In unauthenticated status, controlled ports can be set as unidirectionally controlled or
bi-directionally controlled.
When the port is bi-directionally controlled, the sending and receiving of all
frames is forbidden.
When the port is unidirectionally controlled, no frames can be received from the
supplicant systems while sending frames to the supplicant systems is allowed.
Notes: At present, this kind of switch only supports unidirectional control.

23.1.2 The Work Mechanism of 802.1x

IEEE 802.1x authentication system uses EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) to
implement exchange of authentication information between the supplicant system,
authenticator system and authentication server system.
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