Wiznet 6K and 802.1x

Question

Hello, I am working on a project with a wiznet evaluation board (W6300-EVB-PICO2) and so far I get everything working quite well. However, I am now investigating the possibility of using 802.1x authentication (EAP-MD5 or EAP-TLS) with the w6300 ethernet chip. My search in the documentation did not yield anything. Is it possible to do this in the chip directly, or do I need to capture the 802.1x EAP packets manually on the RP2 and respond to them somehow?

Lihan__ · Answer

Hello, Thank you for the great question. Let me clarify the relationship between W6300 and 802.1x. 1. W6300 does not directly support 802.1x W6300 is a hardware TCP/IP offload chip. This means: Operating layer: Layer 3-4 (Network/Transport) 802.1x operating layer: Layer 2 (Link layer, port-level) 802.1x operates before authentication is complete when first connecting to a network port, which is outside W6300's design scope. W6300 only handles data communication after port access has been granted. 2. Implementation must be done at the FW (host) level If 802.1x authentication is required, you would need to implement an EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) stack in the host firmware of the W6300-EVB-PICO2. Implementation flow: W6300-EVB-PICO2 host firmware (EAP stack) ↓ Raw Ethernet frame manipulation ↓ W6300 (just passes data through) ↓ Network switch/AP (handles 802.1x) Technical challenges: Layer 2 packet control via raw socket is required Authentication timing is critical (timeout considerations) Existing implementations are limited (wpa_supplicant etc. are Linux/POSIX-based) 3. Question: Are you currently using MicroPython? I noticed MicroPython is tagged on your post. Are you planning to implement this using MicroPython on the W6300-EVB-PICO2? If you are using MicroPython: ❌ MicroPython's socket module only supports TCP/UDP ❌ Layer 2 raw socket control is not possible ❌ TLS library constraints make EAP-TLS implementation difficult In this case, I would strongly recommend switching to C/C++ firmware (Pico SDK or Arduino).