3Com WXR100 3CRWXR10095A, WX4400 3CRWX440095A Wireless Client, MAP, WX Switch, and Radius Servers

520CHAPTER 22: CONFIGURING COMMUNICATION WITH RADIUS

Figure 33 Wireless Client, MAP, WX Switch, and RADIUS Servers

3

2

1

Client (with laptop)

Wired connection(s)

Wireless connection

MAP MAP

WX switch
with local
database	4

Client (with PDA)

Client (with laptop)

RADIUS Server 1

RADIUS Server 2

In the example shown in Figure 33, the following events occur:

1The wireless user (client) requests an IEEE 802.11 association from the MAP.

2After the MAP creates the association, the WX switch sends an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) identity request to the client.

3The client sends an EAP identity response.

4From the EAP response, the WX switch gets the client’s username. The WX switch then searches its AAA configuration, attempting to match the client's username against the user globs in the AAA configuration.

When a match is found, the methods specified by the matching AAA command in the WX configuration file indicate how the client is to be authenticated, either locally on the WX switch, or via a RADIUS server group.

5If the client does not support 802.1X, MSS attempts to perform MAC authentication for the client instead. In this case, if the switch’s configuration contains a set authentication mac command that matches the client’s MAC address, MSS uses the method specified by the command. Otherwise, MSS uses local MAC authentication by default.

(For information about MAC client authentication, see “Configuring MAC Authentication and Authorization” on page 457.)