Subject: [dhcwg] Choosing a value for option 60 (Vendor Class ID)

From: Chris Pearson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 18:07:21 -0700

Greetings to the work group!  This is my first post, so please let me know
if I'm off-topic.

After grepping the Web and parsing the thread "Interpretation of Option 60
(Vendor Class ID)" from this list, I'm pretty certain I know the answer to
this question ("no"), but in the spirit of leaving no stone unturned, I'll
ask it anyway: Is there a standard, IANA registry, best practice or
convention regarding the values that clients may assign to vendor class ID?

In the case I'm presently concerned with, the ID will be embedded in
firmware and thus unchangeable in the field, so it's important to get it
right.  The main goal is to reduce probability of collision with other
vendor IDs, and more generally, to harmonize with prevailing wisdom.  (But
re the character string vs. octet string question, I'm convinced that
interoperation with major DHCP server implementations requires the former
interpretation.)  Any and all comments appreciated.

-- Chris Pearson

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From: Patrick Guelat <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 19:24:43 +0200

Hi

I'm working in the Cable modem field and the DOCSIS1.1 specification
requires the use of option 60. cablemodems report their capabilities
using this option.

RFC2132 doesn't tell us how it should look like, so I can just tell you
how this is used in the DOCSIS-world, even if this is probably not what
can be called best practice. I don't know if this option is actively used
in other applications by now.

The format used in DOCSIS is in NVT ASCII consistinng of two parts:

docsis1.1:[0-9A-F]+

Two fields seperated by a colon, 'docsis1.1' and an ascii-hexstring
describing the modem capabilities (TVL in TLV based).

Example:

        OPTION:  60 (VENDOR CLASS IDENTIFIER):
docsis1.1:05240101010201010301010401010501010601010701FF0801080901030A01010B01180C0101

I don't have any idea why this format was chosen, now if there was a place
to register the identifiers before the ':' it wouldn't be that bad.

Regards
	Patrick
--
Patrick Guelat, ImproWare AG Network Services, CH-4133 Pratteln
Mail: [email-masked] - Phone: +41 61 826 93 00 (ext: 13)