<P> Extensible Authentication Protocol, or EAP, is an authentication framework frequently used in wireless networks and point - to - point connections . It is defined in RFC 3748, which made RFC 2284 obsolete, and is updated by RFC 5247 . </P> <P> EAP is an authentication framework for providing the transport and usage of keying material and parameters generated by EAP methods . There are many methods defined by RFCs and a number of vendor specific methods and new proposals exist . EAP is not a wire protocol; instead it only defines message formats . Each protocol that uses EAP defines a way to encapsulate EAP messages within that protocol's messages . </P> <P> EAP is in wide use . For example, in IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) the WPA and WPA2 standards have adopted IEEE 802.1 X with one hundred EAP Types as the official authentication mechanisms . </P> <P> EAP is an authentication framework, not a specific authentication mechanism . It provides some common functions and negotiation of authentication methods called EAP methods . There are currently about 40 different methods defined . Methods defined in IETF RFCs include EAP - MD5, EAP - POTP, EAP - GTC, EAP - TLS, EAP - IKEv2, EAP - SIM, EAP - AKA and EAP - AKA' . Additionally a number of vendor - specific methods and new proposals exist . Commonly used modern methods capable of operating in wireless networks include EAP - TLS, EAP - SIM, EAP - AKA, LEAP and EAP - TTLS . Requirements for EAP methods used in wireless LAN authentication are described in RFC 4017 . The list of type and packets codes used in EAP is available from the IANA EAP Registry . </P>

Eap is an extension of which of the following