BLADE OS™ Application Guide HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem Version 5.1 Advanced Functionality Software

Table Of Contents
BLADE OS 5.1 Application Guide
BMD00113, September 2009 Chapter 3: Port-Based Network Access Control 79
EAPoL Authentication Process
The clients and authenticators communicate using Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP),
which was originally designed to run over PPP, and for which the IEEE 802.1X Standard has
defined an encapsulation method over Ethernet frames, called EAP over LAN (EAPOL). Figure 5
shows a typical message exchange initiated by the client.
Figure 5 Authenticating a Port Using EAPoL
802.1x Client
RADIUS
Server
Radius-Access-Request
Radius-Access-Challenge
Radius-Access-Request
Radius-Access-Accept
EAP-Request (Credentials)
EAP-Response (Credentials)
EAP-Success
EAP-Request (Credentials)
EAP-Response (Credentials)
EAPOL-Start
Port Authorized
Port Unauthorized
Blade Switch
(Authenticator)
(RADIUS Client)
EAPOL
Ethernet
RADIUS-EAP
UDP/IP