Controlling Lease Time in Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Servers

Abstract

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) allows the automatic networking configuration of computers and devices (clients) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is used by clients to request an IP address and obtain configuration parameters (netmask, router IP address, Domain Name Server –DNS– address etc.) for IP networking from a DHCP server. For this purpose, a pool of IP addresses is administered and maintained in a DHCP server. In order to reuse an IP address that is no longer needed by the client to which it was assigned, a lease time parameter is applied. That is, each client leases an IP address from the chosen DHCP server for a limited period of time.