What is an 802.1X supplicant?
An 802.1X supplicant acts as the client side of a client/server authentication handshake. When an 802.1X supplicant tries to access a network, it is challenged for authentication credentials by an 802.1X authenticator (typically an Ethernet switch or Wireless Access Point). The supplicant and authenticator then exchange authentication credentials over a particular type of EAP (i.e. PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS). When the supplicant provides authentication credentials, the authenticator forward them on to an authentication server via the RADIUS protocol for verification. If the authentication credentials are valid, the authentication server sends an “accepted” message to the authenticator which then grants network access to the supplicant.
