Saying that this lowers operational costs and makes network management easier and more efficient Avaya and Extreme are enabling these new capabilities by broadening their commitment to three industry standards:
- IEEE 802.1AB, a specification that enables devices on a local area network to inform each other automatically about how they are configured;
- the US Telephone Industry Association (TIA)-1057, which enables media devices such as IP phones, media gateways and media servers to transmit and receive media-related information;
- the IEEE 802.1X secure authentication protocol, which protects communications travelling on a converged voice and data network.
To provide customers with a deeper level of IP network control and customisation, Extreme Networks is introducing its Universal Port that intelligently performs event-driven actions directly in the network switch. Universal Port works with IEEE 802.1AB and 802.1X authentication to provide customised policy and services deployment, pushed across the network to a connected device. The Universal Port auto-provisions ports within the network switch, based on user or device information.
Since the deployment of endpoints is managed automatically, businesses can ensure that each device on their network is properly configured and protected. As a result, Universal Port greatly simplifies both "green field" deployments and security policy enforcement for roaming users and devices.