Authentication and enforcement of differentiated policies for a bridge mode virtual machine behind a wireless host in a MAC based authentication network

A method for applying a policy to a bridge mode virtual machine (VM) on a host device, the method comprising:

• determining, by a fabric edge device, a media access control (MAC) address of the VM executing on the host device;
• transmitting, by the fabric edge device and to an authentication server, an access request to create a session for the VM;
• receiving, by the fabric edge device and from the authentication server, an indication that the VM is authenticated and a session for the VM has been created, wherein the authentication server determines a policy to apply to packets communicated from the VM and assigns an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the VM to create a MAC-IP binding for the VM;
• and
• applying, by the fabric edge device, the policy for the VM to packets with a source IP address corresponding to the IP address assigned to the VM.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• determining, by a fabric edge device, a media access control (MAC) address of a virtual machine (VM) executing on a host device;
• transmitting, by the fabric edge device and to an authentication server, an access request to create a session for the VM;
• receiving, by the fabric edge device and from the authentication server, an indication that the VM is authenticated and a session for the VM has been created, wherein the authentication server determines a policy to apply to packets communicated from the VM and assigns an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the V M to create a MAC-IP binding for the VM;
• and
• applying, by the fabric edge device, the policy for the VM to packets with a source IP address corresponding to the IP address assigned to the VM.