Research On Next Generation DHCP And Implementation Of DHCPv6

This dissertation is dedicated to techniques relevant to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which was intended to automate the system configuration in an Internet environment, to release system managers from tedious manual operation and to raise utility of network resources (especially for network addresses). An emphasis has been given to IPv6 based DHCP (i.e. DHCPv6) in this work.The IPv4 based DHCP (i.e.DHCPv4) has been playing an important role in existing IPv4 based Internet and will play an even more important role in future IPv6 based Internet, considering its greater address space and more flexible address structure. It is therefore worthwhile to study techniques pertinent DHCPv6 and to attempt an experimental implementation for further understanding and refinement of DHCPv6. The work presented in the dissertation is part of the R & D activities in IPv6 protocol stack and testing carried out at Sichuan Network Communication Technology Key Laboratory (SC-NCTKL).The research work on DHCPv6 within IETF is still in its preliminary phase and most documents are in the form of "Draft Proposal" apart from two in RFCs. So far, there is no DHCPv6 software around internationally; hence development of an experimental DHCPv6 prototype would be meaningful both in understanding and improving DHCPv6 under development.Having studied tens of IETF documents and references, a background analysis on IPv4/IPv6 and DHCPv4/DHCPv6 is presented and comprehensive state transition diagrams/tables and time sequence diagrams for DHCPv6 are derived from the description in natural language, which may help in understanding and implementation of DHCPv6. Finally, an experimental implementation of the DHCPv6 server and client is provided and preliminary test results from the SC-NCTKL and a third-party company have shown that the software, to some extent, conforms to the relevant standards.Author's contribution to this work can be summarized as:A. Provisioning of a comprehensive study on IPv4/IPv6 and DHCPv4/DHCPv6B. Derivation of the state transition tables/diagrams and time sequence diagrams for DHCPv6 from informal description in EnglishC. Development of an DHCPv6 server and client software package in the Linux environmentD. Presentation of test suite planning work and definition a basic test group based on the Remote Test Method defined by ISO 9646, which is in turn used in testing the DHCPv6 software developed by the author. Through comparison of the test results from SC-NCTKL and a third-party company, the basic conformity between the implementation and relevant standards has been proved to some extent.Finally the author gives a brief conclusion about the futher work and the prospect of developing DHCPv6.