Cisco 300 Series Administration Manual page 419

Managed switch

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Table of Contents

This is described in the figure below:

A network device can be either a client/supplicant, authenticator or both per port.

Client or Supplicant

A client or supplicant is a network device that requests access to the LAN. The

client is connected to an authenticator.

If the client uses the 802. 1 x protocol for authentication, it runs the supplicant part

of the 802. 1 x protocol and the client part of the EAP protocol.

No special software is required on the client to use MAC-based or web-based

authentication.

Authenticator

An authenticator is a network device that provides network services and to which

supplicant ports are connected.

The following authentication modes on ports are supported (these modes are set

in Security > 802. 1 X/MAC/Web Authentication > Host and Authentication):

Single-host—Supports port-based authentication with a single client per

Multi-host—Supports port-based authentication with a multiple clients per

Multi-sessions—Supports client-based authentication with a multiple

clients per port.

Cisco Small Business 200, 300 and 500 Series Managed Switch Administration Guide (Internal Version)

Security: 802.1X Authentication

Overview of 802. 1 X