RADIUS-Based ESS Profile Restriction
This feature gives a controller the capability to restrict wireless clients attempting connection through RADIUS based ESS profiles; the clients can connect only to certain SSIDs as returned in a RADIUS Accept message.
With this system, there is one RADIUS server and multiple ESS profiles with 802.1X security using this RADIUS Server. In absence of the RSSID feature, all wireless clients provisioned in the RADIUS Server have access to all ESS profiles and hence all associated VLANS. With SSID restriction, the RADIUS server can be further configured for each of these wireless clients specifying the SSIDs they can connect with.
You can use a RADIUS server to restrict SSID connection using VSA in the RADIUS Accept message. There are three possible conditions for an SSID:
| RADIUS Server Sends | Results in: |
| No list of acceptable SSIDs | Connection is accepted |
| A list of acceptable SSIDs that includes the ID | Connection is accepted |
| A list of acceptable SSIDs that does not include the ID | Connection is not accepted |
The RADIUS server should return the allowed SSID(s) in a Vendor-specific attribute (VSA) with Vendor code 9 and attribute number 1 in the Access-Accept message. The attribute value should be string format.
The string should say ssid=<ssid-string> where <ssid-string> is replaced by the actual SSID (also known as the ESSID).
If a list of multiple allowed SSIDs is used, put each SSID in a separate instance of the attribute. The order of the attributes does not matter. If the SSID to which the station is trying to connect is not among the SSIDs returned by the RADIUS server, the station will be denied access.This feature has no CLI or Web UI commands associated with it. If the RADIUS responds with a list of allowed SSIDs, the list is used to process and limit the user.