Enterasys Networks 9034385 manual 3 Comparison of Appliance Advantages and Disadvantages, Features

NAC Solution Components

Table 1‐3 outlines the advantages and disadvantages of the two appliance types as they pertain to network security, scalability, and configuration/implementation.

Table 1-3 Comparison of Appliance Advantages and Disadvantages

Features	NAC Gateway	NAC Controller
Supported	Disadvantage:	Advantage:
Connection Types	Restricted to wired and wireless	Flexible, catering to wired and wireless
	access edge with authentication and	access edge as well as remote access
	authorization functionality.	VPN of any type.
Deployment	Advantage:	Disadvantage:
	Less disruptive because no topology	More disruptive because topology
	reconfiguration is required.	reconfigurations are required to place
		the NAC Controller inline with data
		traffic on the network.
Configuration	Disadvantage:	Advantage:
	More complex because the NAC	Less complex because there is no
	Gateway requires that an	dependency on authentication and
	authentication method is deployed on	downstream infrastructure device
	the network, and that the	functionality.
	authenticating access edge switches
	are capable of dynamically
	authorizing end-systems based on
	the RADIUS authentication
	interchange.
Security	Advantage:	Disadvantage:
	More secure because the traffic	The authorization point is farther from
	enforcement point for end-system	the end-system point of connection. An
	authorization is closer to the end-	offending end-system poses a threat to
	system's port of network connection	all network resources downstream
	on the access layer switch. Therefore,	from the NAC Controller because the
	an offending end-system poses a	traffic enforcement point is
	threat to a smaller set of network	implemented at the inline NAC
	resources.	appliance. Malicious traffic will be
		discarded only when an end-system
		communicates through the appliance.

1-8 Overview