Question 229 - 350-701 discussion

As the new device does not have a supplicant, we cannot use 802.1X.

MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) is a fallback option for devices that don't support 802.1x. It is virtually always used in deployments in some way shape or form. MAB works by having the authenticator take the connecting device's MAC address and send it to the authentication server as its username and password. The authentication server will check its policies and send back an Access-Accept or Access- Reject just like it would with 802.1x.

Cisco ISE Profiling Services provides dynamic detection and classification of endpoints connected to the network. Using MAC addresses as the unique identifier, ISE collects various attributes for each network endpoint to build an internal endpoint database. The classification process matches the collected attributes to prebuilt or user-defined conditions, which are then correlated to an extensive library of profiles. These profiles include a wide range of device types, including mobile clients (iPads, Android tablets, Chromebooks, and so on), desktop operating systems (for example, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and others), and numerous non-user systems such as printers, phones, cameras, and game consoles.

Once classified, endpoints can be authorized to the network and granted access based on their profile. For example, endpoints that match the IP phone profile can be placed into a voice VLAN using MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) as the authentication method. Another example is to provide differentiated network access to users based on the device used. For example, employees can get full access when accessing the network from their corporate workstation but be granted limited network access when accessing the network from their personal iPhone.

Reference: https://community.cisco.com/t5/security-documents/ise-profiling-design-guide/tap/3739456