Use a figure to explain the packets that were exchanged by the DHCP client and the DHCP server as part of the process of acquiring an IP address.

What will be an ideal response?

A DHCP DISCOVER message is first broadcasted by a DHCP client to discover the available

DHCP servers in the network. If there is any DHCP server present, it responds to the client request by

issuing a DHCP OFFER message. The message is broadcasted but the client’s MAC address is included

in the packet to enable other hosts to resolve the intended destination. They drop the packet if its not

meant for them. The DHCP client then issues a DHCP Request message asking for the configuration parameters through the ‘options’ field in the request packet. This packet is also broadcasted. This allows the other DHCP servers (if present) to determine if their offer was accepted or not. The selected server then gets back to the client with the configuration parameters through the DHCP ACK message. A typical message sequence chart for the DHCP transactions is as follows:



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5 0.995108 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 DHCP DHCP

Discover - Transaction ID 0x521c325f

6 0.995319 10.0.1.21 255.255.255.255 DHCP DHCP Offer

- Transaction ID 0x521c325f

7 0.995461 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 DHCP DHCP

Request - Transaction ID 0x5