Subject: Request messages

From: Jerome MARCHAND <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 16:40:23 +0200

Hi,

In sub-section 13.3.1 of draft 18, 
Why are the REQUEST messages sent to 
multicast address ( All DHCP Agents ),
given that the "server-address" field
contains the address of the DHCP server
we'd like to talk to ?
Why don't we send it directly to that
server unicast address ?

Thank and regards.

---

From: Ralph Droms <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 11:29:17 -0500

Prior to the -18 draft, we made a design decision that all messages would 
be forwarded through relay agents so those relay agents can attach relay 
agent options to all messages.  Experience with DHCPv4 has shown that there 
are situations in which its useful to get those options on all messages.

We did discuss a proposal in Minneapolis for an optimization which would 
allow clients to unicast to servers when possible.  Turns out only a few 
messages can be unicast - we'll add text to the next rev of the draft 
specifying when unicast can be used and how the server can control use of 
unicast.

- Ralph Droms