Subject: Protocol Action: DHCP Relay Agent Information Option to Proposed Standard

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 16:50:10 -0500

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'DHCP Relay Agent Information
Option' <draft-ietf-dhc-agent-options-12.txt> as a Proposed Standard.
This document is the product of the Dynamic Host Configuration Working
Group.  The IESG contact persons are Erik Nordmark and Thomas Narten.

Technical Summary

DHCP allows hosts to obtain an IP address and other configuration
information from a server. Because hosts use DHCP before they have a
useable IP address, relay agents are needed to forward DHCP packets to
servers that physically attach to links other than the link to which
the host connects. Traditionally, relay agents have simply relayed
packets. They do not modify the contents of DHCP packets they relay
other than in ways necessary to make the DHCP protocol itself work.

This document defines a new option that is added (and removed) by
relay agents, is acted upon by DHCP servers (that understand the
option), but that is never seen by hosts themselves. The new option
allows a relay agent to add a Relay Information Option to the packets
it relays from a host to a DHCP server. Such an option allows the
relay agent to include additional information to the DHCP server that
the sever can then use in formulating an appropriate response. If the
relay agent is co-located with the circuit access equipment (e.g., a
cable modem), the relay agent can add information indicating which
"circuit" the request came in on. The server receiving a Relay
Information Option can use the option as input to the decision process
for deciding which options to return to the requesting host.

Working Group Summary

There was strong consensus in the WG for this new option.

Protocol Quality

This document has been reviewed for the IESG by Thomas Narten.