Hello dear Community members!
What a beautiful day to discuss LAN authentication standards, is it not?
Indeed it is, which is why today we'll be addressing the IEEE 802.1X standard, especially since our Community users specifically searched for it on the Community quite a few times throughout the course of last year. Let us discover more details together on the IEEE 802.1X standard in the following sections of this blog!
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Source: https://www.securew2.com/solutions/802-1x
Let us start by defining the IEEE 802.1X standard. For that, we are going to turn to our friends over at Securew2. come, who've defined 802.1X as 'an IEEE Standard for Port-Based Network Access Control (PNAC), provides protected authentication for secure network access'.
Pretty straightforward definition, right? Let's take a closer look at the point where it originates. Now, you may notice the resemblance with the IEEE 802.11 standard cluster (the ones comprised in Wi-Fi), but don't get fooled - 802.1X originates back from the era when the World Wide Web consisted solely of wired connections. Because the protocol relies on a centralized authentication server, you will be able to find it nowadays predominantly in enterprise-scale LANs and less in residential LANs. More on the components of the IEEE 802.1X standard to be found below.
ESSENTIAL PARTS
In order to make 802.1X work, one must use three crucial components. These are:
supplicant - the user/client that needs to be authenticated;
authentication server - the actual server that is doing the authentication (most commonly should be a RADIUS server;
authenticator - the device in between the supplicant and the authentication server (typically a wireless access point).
In some special cases, the server isn't even going to be necessary. As networking technology advanced, some access points currently available on the market come with built-in software that can operate 802.1X by themselves. This is mostly applicable to small-scale deployment scenarios.
BENEFITS
Based on the good ol' saying 'if an engineer made it, it is definitely useful', the IEEE 802.1X standard provides certain benefits. It is worth mentioning:
802.1X is flexible - it is based on the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP);
802.1X integrates multiple authentication methods - these include MD5, TLS, TTLS, LEAP, PEAP, SecurID, SIM and AKA.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The IEEE 802.1X standard is one robust LAN authentication standard. The flexibility it offers, combined with the relatively low resource required for it to work still make it one of the preferred authentication standards in the enterprise world. Stay tuned for more similar content by subscribing to the Community blog!
