How RADIUS Relay Server Works

When a wireless subscriber starts a session, the WAP encapsulates EAP attributes into a RADIUS Access-Request message and sends the request to the E-series router, which the WAP views as the RADIUS server. The encapsulated message uses the RADIUS EAP-Message (79) attribute. The RADIUS relay server does not process any of the EAP attributes in the RADIUS Access-Request message; the encrypted message is simply passed through the router to the actual RADIUS server. The RADIUS server must be EAP aware.

You can also use an optional RADIUS proxy server to provide additional enhancements to the 802.1x-based environment. For example, the RADIUS proxy server enables subscribers to be multiplexed to multiple Internet service providers (ISPs) that are customers of the same carrier. The server performs one of the following actions:

• If the ISP’s RADIUS server supports EAP, the RADIUS proxy server extends the EAP session to the RADIUS server.
• If the ISP’s RADIUS server does not support EAP, the RADIUS proxy server translates the EAP session into a legacy RADIUS session for the RADIUS server.

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