Chapter18.

fm Page 1 Monday, June 15, 2009 11:40 AM

CHAPTER 18
Host Configuration: DHCP

Exercises
1. The minimum length of a DHCP packet is 236 (without the option field). The max-
imum is 300 bytes (with the option field).

3. Figure 18.E3 shows an example of the padding option. The option section starts
with the cookie (90.130.83.99) followed by the subnet mask option (included to
show the use of the padding option. We also need the end of list option (tag 255).
Figure 18.E3 Solution to Exercise 3

Base header
(236 bytes)

99.130.83.99
1 4 Subnet mask
Subnet mask 0 255

Padding option

5. The second field is 16 bits long. It can store up to 216 − 1 = 65,535 seconds.

7.
A newly added host needs to know its subnet mask because this allows the host to
find out which subnet it is on.

9. A newly added host needs to know the address of a name server in order to resolve
a domain name to an IP address.

11. See Figure 18.E11. We assume that the server is 4 hops away. We also use transac-
tion ID of 1456. The messages between the client and the relay agent are broad-
cast. The messages between the relay agent and the server are unicast.

1
Chapter18.fm Page 2 Monday, June 15, 2009 11:40 AM

Figure 18.E11 Solution to Exercise 11

1 2

198.42.65.23 198.42.65.40 Server 142.53.19.25

Relay
Client

Internet
4
3

1 2
1 1 6 1 1 1 6 4
1456 1456
No. of seconds No. of seconds
0 0
0 0
0 142.53.19.25
0 198.42.65.40
Rest of the packet Rest of the packet

4 3
2 1 6 1 2 1 6 4
1456 1456
No. of seconds No. of seconds
198.42.65.23 198.42.65.23
198.42.65.23 198.42.65.40
142.53.19.25 142.53.19.25
198.42.65.40 198.42.65.40
Rest of the packet Rest of the packet