Network Access Protection Platform Architecture

The Network Access Protection (NAP) platform is a policy enforcement technology that allows third-party software vendors and system integrators to create complete solutions for validating and enforcing system health requirements for network access or communication. NAP is supported by Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 (now in beta testing), Windows Vista™, and Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (which includes the NAP Client for Windows XP, now in beta testing).

This white paper describes the architecture of the NAP platform and the details of how NAP works for enforcement methods that are provided with Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 3.