1-11 HABP ConfigurationWhen configuring HABP, go to these sections for the information you are interested in:z Introduction to HABPz Configuring HABPz Displaying and Maintaining HABPz HABP Configuration ExampleIntroduction to HABPThe HW Authentication Bypass Protocol (HABP) is used to enable the downstream network devices ofan 802.1X or MAC authentication enabled access device to bypass 802.1X authentication and MACauthentication.HABP is usually adopted at the access layer of a campus or enterprise network. This feature is usefulwhen 802.1X authentication or MAC address authentication is adopted on the management switch of acluster, in which case you must configure HABP to allow the packets between the member devices ofthe cluster to bypass 802.1X authentication because network devices usually do not support 802.1client. Otherwise, the management device will fail to perform centralized management of the clustermember devices. For more information about the cluster function, refer to Cluster Configuration in theSystem Volume.As shown in Figure 1-1, 802.1X authenticator Switch A has two switches attached to it: Switch B andSwitch C. On Switch A, 802.1X authentication is enabled globally and on the ports connecting thedownstream network devices. The end-user devices (the supplicants) run the 802.1X client software for802.1X authentication. For Switch B and Switch D, where 802.1X client is not supported (which istypical of network devices), the communication between them will fail because they cannot pass 802.1Xauthentication and their packets will be blocked on Switch A. To allow the two switches to communicate,you can use HABP.
