Technical Summary
This document describes a DHCP option and an RA extension to inform
nodes that they are behind some sort of captive portal device, and
that they will need to authenticate to get Internet Access.
Working Group Summary
This document was reviewed by the DHC working group, but was not adopted
there because the work is not in charter. Because it defines new DHCP options,
it's not really in charter for 6man either. Taken forward as an AD sponsored
it has had abundant review. been the inspiration for a BOF and generally
received positive attention.
Document Quality
Dan Lüdtke has done an implementation of the router side of the RA option.
We are aware of no RA listener implementations nor DHCP client
implementations. Because this document defines DHCP options,
any generally-configurable DHCP server or client can
readily be configured to support this new option, typically without recompilation.
The option question for this document is whether captive portal manufacturers
and, more importantly, DHCP client implementors and RA listener implementors
will see the extension as valuable and make use of it.
The reason for advancing it at this stage rather than waiting for widespread
adoption is that until a standard format is defined, the extension serves no
useful purpose and cannot be deployed. By documenting this extension,
we hope to provide an opportunity for improvement in the way captive
portals are operated.
Personnel
Ted Lemon is the document shepherd.
Joel Jaeggli is the responsible AD.