Patent ID: 7325246

Claim:
A system, comprising: an authentication server disposed on a network; a switch coupled to the network and communicatively coupled to the authentication server via the network, the switch comprises a switch table containing a list of allowed addresses; and an access point communicatively coupled to the switch; wherein the switch is configured to allow packets having addresses listed in the switch table and the switch is configured to block packets having addresses that are not in the switch table; wherein the switch is configured to be the authenticator for the access point and is configured to authenticate the access point with the authentication server and establish a secure communication session with the access point; wherein the access point is configured to be the authenticator for a wireless client having an address, the access point communicates with the authentication server using the secure communication session established with the switch; wherein the access point is configured to send a message to the switch via the secure communication session, the message comprising data indicating the wireless client is authenticated, responsive to successfully authenticating the wireless client with the authentication server; wherein the switch is responsive to receiving the message from the access point indicating the wireless client is authenticated to add an address for the wireless client into the switch table wherein the access point is configured to forward all communications received from the authenticated wireless client to the switch responsive to the wireless client successfully authenticating with the authentication server; and wherein the switch is configured to forward all communications received from the wireless client via the access point onto the network after adding the address for the wireless client into the switch table.