Patent ID: 7716724

Claim:
A method for maintaining state information for an extensible authentication protocol (EAP) session, comprising: receiving, by a state server, a first message of the EAP session from a first authentication server; receiving, by the state server, a second message of the EAP session from a second authentication server; and managing, by the state server, the EAP session based on at least the first and second messages, including: sending a reply to the first message, from the state server to the first authentication server; storing, by the state server, information relating to at least one of the first message or the reply to the first message as state information; sending a reply to the second message, from the state server to the second authentication server based on the state information; maintaining the EAP session for a predetermined time; and closing the EAP session after the predetermined time, where the state server and the first and second authentication servers are separate devices configured to communicate via at least one of a wired, a wireless, or an optical connection.