The network element must authenticate all network-connected endpoint devices before establishing any connection.

Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity.

For distributed architectures (e.g., service-oriented architectures), the decisions regarding the validation of authentication claims may be made by services separate from the services acting on those decisions. In such situations, it is necessary to provide authentication decisions (as opposed to the actual authenticators) to the services that need to act on those decisions.

This requirement applies to applications that connect locally, remotely, or through a network to an endpoint device (including, but not limited to, workstations, printers, servers outside a datacenter, Voice over Internet Protocol phones, and video teleconferencing codecs). Gateways and service-oriented architecture applications are examples of where this requirement would apply.

Device authentication is a solution enabling an organization to manage devices. It is an additional layer of authentication ensuring only specific preauthorized devices can access the system.