3Com WX3000 operation manual Dhcp Overview, Introduction to Dhcp, Dhcp IP Address Assignment

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The term switch used throughout this document refers to a switching device in a generic sense or the switching engine of the WX3000 series.

The sample output information in this manual was created on the WX3024. The output information on your device may vary.

1 DHCP Overview

Introduction to DHCP

With networks getting larger in size and more complicated in structure, lack of available IP addresses becomes the common situation the network administrators have to face, and network configuration becomes a tough task for the network administrators. With the emerging of wireless networks and the using of laptops, the position change of hosts and frequent change of IP addresses also require new technology. Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) is developed to solve these issues.

DHCP adopts a client/server model, where the DHCP clients send requests to DHCP servers for configuration parameters; and the DHCP servers return the corresponding configuration information such as IP addresses to implement dynamic allocation of network resources.

A typical DHCP application includes one DHCP server and multiple clients (such as PCs and laptops), as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1Typical DHCP application

DHCP client DHCP client

DHCP server

DHCP client DHCP client

DHCP IP Address Assignment

IP Address Assignment Policy

Currently, DHCP provides the following three IP address assignment policies to meet the requirements of different clients:

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