Subject: subnet allocation request

From: Randy Turner <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 13:30:05 -0700

Awhile back, someone issued a draft that specified IPCP functionality to
allocate a subnet with a fixed number of addresses. Unlike the current DHCP
proposal that requests a specific subnet, the previous IPCP proposal I
believe had the capability to just request a subnet of a certain size and
was agnostic to the subnet that was selected.

At some point after submission of this draft, it was decided that this
functionality should be better taken up by the DHCP WG, and I believe the
draft was left to expire. To date, I don't believe anyone else has made such
a request in this group or the DHCP group, but I would like confirmation
that this is the correct history regarding this draft before I take the time
to draw one up myself.

If anyone has any other information on this proposal, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!
Randy

Randy Turner
2Wire, Inc.
[email-masked]

---

From: Juha Heinanen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 07:02:31 +0300 (EEST)

randy,

i wrote the i-d and the idea was like you described, i.e., the ppp
client could ask during the ipcp negotiation phase a subnet of a certain
(possibly any) size instead of a single ip address.  the "consensus" of
the wg was that ipcp is not the right means to negotiate the subnet, but
that bootp or dhcp inform should be used instead and since there already
exists a subnet option both in boopt and dhcp, nothing was left to be
standardized.

what has happened in practice though is that some (adsl) router vendors
actually went and implemented an ipcp subnet option and i'm very happy
about it, since it solves my real problem.  if some vendors come up with
the bootp or dhcp solution, that would be fine with me too, since i
don't care how the problem is solved as long as it is done.

just for information (if someone plans to sell adsl equipment to me),
below is the packet format of the ipcp subnet option that is currently
implemented in my network.

-- juha
------------------------------------------------------------------

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |     Type      |    Length     |             Mask
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
		Mask (cont)         |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    where Type = 0x90 and Length = 0x06.