Vendor-Identifying Vendor Options for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 4 (DHCPv4)
RFC 3925
Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(October 2004; No errata)
Was draft-ietf-dhc-vendor (dhc WG)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Author | Joshua Littlefield | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 3925 (Proposed Standard) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Margaret Cullen | ||
Send notices to | rdroms@cisco.com |
Network Working Group J. Littlefield Request for Comments: 3925 Cisco Systems, Inc. Category: Standards Track October 2004 Vendor-Identifying Vendor Options for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 4 (DHCPv4) Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). Abstract The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) options for Vendor Class and Vendor-Specific Information can be limiting or ambiguous when a DHCP client represents multiple vendors. This document defines two new options, modeled on the IPv6 options for vendor class and vendor-specific information, that contain Enterprise Numbers to remove ambiguity. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. Conventions Used in This Document. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Supporting Multiple Vendor Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Vendor-Identifying Vendor Class Option . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Vendor-Identifying Vendor-Specific Information Option . . . . 5 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 8. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Littlefield Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 3925 Vendor-Identifying Vendor Options October 2004 1. Introduction The DHCP protocol for IPv4, RFC 2131 [2], defines options that allow a client to indicate its vendor type (option 60), and the DHCP client and server to exchange vendor-specific information (option 43) [5]. Although there is no prohibition against passing multiple copies of these options in a single packet, doing so would introduce ambiguity of interpretation, particularly if conveying vendor-specific information for multiple vendors. The vendor identified by option 60 defines the interpretation of option 43, which itself carries no vendor identifier. Furthermore, the concatenation of multiple instances of the same option, required by RFC 2131 and specified by RFC 3396 [4], means that multiple copies of options 60 or 43 would not remain independent. In some circumstances, an implementation may need to support multiple, independently defined forms of vendor-specific information. For example, implementations that must conform to an industry- standard use of DHCPv4, to allow interoperability in a particular technology space, may be required to support the vendor-specific options of that industry group. But the same implementation may also require support for vendor-specific options defined by the manufacturer. In particular, this is an issue for vendors of devices supporting CableLabs [9] standards, such as DOCSIS, CableHome, and PacketCable, as those standards define an industry-specific use for options 60 and 43. This document defines two new options, modeled on the IPv6 options for vendor class and vendor-specific information defined in RFC 3315 [6], that contain IANA-assigned Enterprise Numbers [3] to remove ambiguity about the interpretation of their contents. If desired, these new options can be used in addition to the current vendor class and vendor information options, whose definition is unaffected by this document. 1.1. Conventions Used in This Document The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [1]. Littlefield Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 3925 Vendor-Identifying Vendor Options October 2004 2. Supporting Multiple Vendor Instances The options defined in this document may each contain data corresponding to more than one vendor. The data portion of each option defined here contains an enterprise number (assigned by IANA [3]), followed by an internal data length, followed by vendor- specific data. This sequence may be repeated multiple times within each option. Because the aggregate of the vendor-specific data forShow full document text