Nortel Networks TP-1610 SIP user manual BootP/DHCP Support, Startup Process

Mediant 2000 SIP User’s Manual 10. BootP/DHCP Support

10 BootP/DHCP Support

10.1 Startup Process

The startup process (illustrated in Figure 10-1on page 168) begins when the gateway is reset (physically or from the Web / SNMP) and ends when the operational software is running. In the startup process, the network parameters, software and configuration files are obtained.

After the gateway powers up or after it is physically reset, it broadcasts a BootRequest message to the network. If it receives a reply (from a BootP server), it changes its network parameters (IP address, subnet mask and default gateway address) to the values provided. If there is no reply from a BootP server and if DHCP is enabled (DHCPEnable = 1), the gateway initiates a standard DHCP procedure to configure its network parameters.

After changing the network parameters, the gateway attempts to load the cmp and various configuration files from the TFTP server’s IP address, received from the BootP/DHCP servers. If a TFTP server’s IP address isn’t received, the gateway attempts to load the software (cmp) file and / or configuration files from a preconfigured TFTP server (refer to the parameters ‘IniFileURL’

and ‘CmpFileURL’ described in Table 6-1on page 90). Thus, the gateway can obtain its network parameters from BootP or DHCP servers and its software and configuration files from a different TFTP server (preconfigured in ini file).

If BootP/DHCP servers are not found or when the gateway is reset from the Web / SNMP, it retains its network parameters and attempts to load the software (cmp) file and / or configuration files from a preconfigured TFTP server.

If a preconfigured TFTP server doesn’t exist, the gateway operates using the existing software and configuration files loaded on its non-volatile memory.

Note that after the operational software runs, if DHCP is configured, the gateway attempts to renew its lease with the DHCP server.

Note 1: Though DHCP and BootP servers are very similar in operation, the DHCP server includes some differences that could prevent its operation with BootP clients. However, many DHCP servers, such as Windows™ NT DHCP server, are backward-compatible with BootP protocol and can be used for gateway configuration.

Note 2: The time duration between BootP/DHCP requests is set to 1 second by default. This can be changed by the BootPDelay ini file parameter. Also, the number of requests is 3 by default and can be changed by BootPRetries ini file parameter. (Both parameters can also be set using the BootP command line switches).

Version 4.4 167 July 2005