Enterasys 5g102-06-g Betriebsanweisung

 provides an explanation of authentication terms and abbreviations used in this document.

The Enterasys Networks Matrix E5 modules support the following 802.1X and EAP security and 
authentication features to:

Authenticate hosts that are connected to dedicated switch ports.

Authenticate based on single-user hosts. (If a host is a time-shared Unix or VMS system, 
successful authentication by any user will allow all users access to the network.)

Allow users to authenticate themselves by logging in with user names and passwords, token 
cards, or other high-level identification. Thus, a system manager does not need to spend hours 
setting low-level MAC address filters on every edge switch to simulate user-level access 
controls. 

EAP 

Extensible Authentication Protocol (e.g., Microsoft IAS 
Server and Funk Steel Belted Radius).

PAE

Port Access Entity, device firmware that implements or 
participates in the protocol.

RADIUS

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service.

Authenticator

The entity that sits between a supplicant and the 
authentication server. The authenticator’s job is to pass 
authenticating information between the supplicant and 
authentication server until an authentication decision is 
made.

Authentication Server

Provides authentication service to an authenticator. This 
service determines, by the credentials the supplicant 
provides, whether a supplicant is authorized to access 
services provided by the authenticator. The authentication 
server can be co-located with an authenticator or can be 
accessed remotely.

Supplicant

The entity (user machine) that is trying to be authenticated 
by an authenticator attached to the other end of that link.