Wired Authentication - 802.1x and MAC - Constant EAP Request ID being sent

[NT3]

Hello,

I have ports configured for both 802.1x and MAB.

Clients that do not support 802.1x with authenticate using their MAC address.

I have noticed that even though a client successfully authenticates using their MAC address the switch will continue to send EAP-Identity-Requests to the client.  The client will not respond, however the switch will endlessly send requests regardless of the MAC authentication state.

Is this expected behavior for ports running parallel authentication methods?  I would expect it to stop/eventually timeout if the client does not respond or has already MAC authenticated?

Thanks,

[akg7]

Hello @NT3 ,

I believe its an expected behavior.

EAP is a ‘lock step’ protocol so the authentication can continue until the authenticator determines that successful authentication has occurred. 

Are you getting any error code?

Thanks!