Patent attributes
A basic idea is to use the AAA infrastructure to assign (S3) an appropriate DHCP server to DHCP client for the DHCP service, and transferring DHCP-related information over the AAA infrastructure for authenticating (S1) and authorizing (S4) the DHCP client for DHCP service with the assigned DHCP server. Instead of the more complex DHCP server discovery process known from the prior art, the AAA infrastructure, and more particularly a suitable AAA server or equivalent AAA component, is used for assigning an appropriate DHCP server to the DHCP client. Consequently, there is no longer any mandatory dependency on the DHCP discovery-related messages. The invention preferably provides AAA protocol support for facilitating assignment of appropriate DHCP servers and providing an out-of-band key agreement protocol for DHCP clients and servers by carrying DHCP related information facilitating the bootstrapping of DHCP authentication extension (RFC3118).
