This INTEGER selects which authentication method — and, via the 'All' variants, whether the approval applies to one pending ONU or to every currently-unauthenticated ONU at once — an admin is using when confirming an ONU discovered on the PON but not yet whitelisted. Admins use the bulk 'All' values specifically to avoid confirming dozens of newly-discovered identical ONUs one at a time. For example, setting eponOnuAuthenConfirmType to loidPwdAuthAll(6) lets an admin bulk-approve every ONU pending on a newly-lit PON port using LOID+password credentials in a single operation.