
DHC working group                           Baiju V. Patel, Intel Corp.
Internet Draft                              Munil Shah, Microsoft Corp.
August 1998                    Stephen R. Hanna, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Expires: February 1999                    draft-ietf-dhc-multopt-03.txt

           Multicast Address Allocation Configuration Options

Status of this memo

   This document is an Internet Draft.  Internet Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas,
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   A revised version of this draft document will be submitted to the RFC
   editor as a Proposed Standard for the Internet Community. Discussion
   and suggestions for improvement are requested.  This document will
   expire before February 1999. Distribution of this draft is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document describes DHCP options that may be used to provide
   access to Multicast Address Allocation servers, such as MDHCP
   servers.

1. Terminology

   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 RFC 2119.

   This document uses the following terms:

      o "DHCP client"

        A DHCP client is an Internet host using DHCP to obtain
        configuration parameters such as a network address.



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      o "DHCP server"

        A DHCP server is an Internet host that returns configuration
        parameters to DHCP clients.

      o "MDHCP client"

        An MDHCP client is an Internet host requesting multicast
        address allocation services via MDHCP.

      o "MDHCP server"

        An MDHCP server is an Internet host providing multicast
        address allocation services via MDHCP.

2. Multicast Address Allocation Configuration Options

   The MDHCP protocol [3] allows hosts (known as MDHCP clients) to
   request multicast address allocation services from multicast address
   allocation servers (known as MDHCP servers). One way that MDHCP
   clients communicate with MDHCP servers is by sending multicast
   messages to an MDHCP Server Multicast Address.

   This document defines a DHCP option (as described in [1] and [2])
   that may be used to configure MDHCP clients with an appropriate MDHCP
   Server Multicast Address and TTL.

2.1. MDHCP Server Multicast Address option

   The MDHCP Server Multicast Address option specifies a multicast
   address and TTL that MDHCP clients SHOULD use to contact MDHCP
   servers.

   A DHCP client can obtain this parameter as part of the normal DHCP
   protocol message exchange or separately via DHCPINFORM.

         Code  Len      Multicast Address     TTL
        +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
        | TBD | 5   | i1  | i2  | i3  | i4  | ttl |
        +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

   The code for this option is TBD and the length is 5.

3. References

   [1] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131,
       March 1997.




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   [2] Alexander, S., and R. Droms, "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor
       Extensions", RFC 2132, March 1997.

   [3] Patel, B., M. Shah, and S. Hanna, "Multicast address
       allocation based on the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol",
       draft-ietf-malloc-mdhcp-00.txt, August 1998.

4. Authors' Addresses

   Baiju V. Patel
   Intel Corp.
   2111 NE 25th Ave.
   Hillsboro, OR 97124

   Phone: 503 264 2422
   EMail: baiju.v.patel@intel.com

   Munil Shah
   Microsoft Corporation
   One Microsoft Way
   Redmond, WA 98052

   Phone: 425 703 3924
   Email: munils@microsoft.com

   Stephen R. Hanna
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   2 Elizabeth Drive, M/S UCHL03-205
   Chelmsford, MA 01824

   Phone: +1.978.442.0166
   Email: steve.hanna@sun.com



















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