On Wed, 23 Feb 2022 09:40:59 +0100 Hans Schultz wrote:

quoted

You still haven't answer my question. Is the data plane clear text in
the deployment you describe?  

Sorry, I didn't understand your question in the first instance. So as
802.1X is only about authentication/authorization, the port when opened
for a host is like any other switch port and thus communication is in
the clear.

Alright, thanks for clarifying!

I have not looked much into macsec (but know ipsec), and that is a
crypto (key) based connection mechanism, but that is a totally different
ballgame, and I think it would for most practical cases require hardware 
encryption.