6.6 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
6.6 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol If you have a desktop system that stays in the same office, it makes sense to give the system ownership of its own IP address. In other environments, this could be quite cumbersome. Anyone who has ever worked for a large corporation and had to travel from office to office with a laptop has experienced this. Typically, the first thing you have to do is find someone, a network administrator, who can give you an available IP address on that particular subnet. You then configure your system with the new parameters and hope that you didn't accidentally grab an IP address the administrator didn't know was used. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) simplifies this entire process. DHCP centralizes the process of distributing IP addresses. In addition to improving the lives of traveling tube-heads such as myself , DHCP simplifies the process of network administration. No longer is it necessary for administrators to maintain lists of available IP addresses. The DHCP server manages these numbers . The DHCP server also reduces the total number of required IP addresses. Although a particular network may have a potential 200 or 300 servers and laptops, only those servers connected at that point in time require an actual IP address. Depending on the nature of the office, the difference between the potential and the actual number of systems can be quite significant. In a sales or consulting office, the majority of users will typically be out of the office. Figure 6.10 shows how DHCP provides this service. When users boot their systems, the network initialization procedure begins by searching for the DHCP server. Once the DHCP server is found, a request is made for an IP address. The server contains all the information necessary for the client's network configuration, including a pool of available addresses. After retrieving a valid IP address from the pool, the DHCP passes back to the client the IP address, the network configuration parameters, and a lease. The lease defines the duration for which the parameters are valid. Figure 6.10. Dynamic host configuration protocol.  |
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 113