Question

What is 802.1X enterprise mode and why large firms uses this mode? Which network component will play the role of Authenticator in the wireless settings? How does this extension protect the network?

Answer 1

Generally we might see the options to put security as WPA and WPA-2 while setting up our mobile wifi hotspot.

The 802.1X enterprise mode is used for LAN authentication.

It describes how the  authentication of devices over LAN's and wireless networks are made.

Most of the larger firms want t more security than simply using usernames and passwords for access, so a new authentication protocol, called the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), was designed. EAP is inside of PPP's authentication protocol and provides a general framework for several different authentication methods. EAP is supposed to head off proprietary authentication systems and let everything from passwords to challenge-response tokens and public-key infrastructure certificates all work smoothly.

With a standardized EAP, interoperability and compatibility of authentication methods has becomes simpler. For example, when you dial a remote-access server and use EAP as part of your PPP connection, the RAS doesn't need to know any of the details about your authentication system. Only you and the authentication server have to be coordinated. By supporting EAP authentication a RAS server gets out of the business of acting as middle man, and just packages and repackages EAP packets to hand off to a RADIUS server that will do the actual authentication.

This brings us to the IEEE 802.1X standard, which is simply a standard for passing EAP over a wired or wireless LAN.

The actual server doing the authentication that is a RADIUS server, is called the authentication server but unlike wired connections in wireless settings we face security issues .  With 802.1X, each station could have a unique WEP key for every session.

Here the WIRELESS ACCESS POINT acts as a authenticator.

This extension protects the network by changing  the WEP key very frequently, such as once every 10 minutes or every 1000 frames.