ARRIS Enterprises, Inc. Confidential Information

DHCP options

When booting using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), a standard negotiation according to RFC 2131 is performed. The set-top box sends a DHCP Discover, the DHCP server answers with a DHCP Offer, the STB sends a DHCP Request and the DHCP server finishes the negotiation by sending a DHCP Ack. The messages sent from the DHCP server contains the necessary information in order for the STB to use the network.

In addition to the standard parameters (IP, Netmask, Gateway etc.), KreaTV has defined specific configuration parameters that can control the entire boot behavior using the Vendor Specific Information (option-43) with the "encapsulated vendor-specific options" format described in RFC 2132. The Vendor Class Identifier (option-60) and/or the User Class Information (option-77) should be used by the DHCP server to identify a KreaTV IP-STB and send the correct parameters in the Vendor Specific Information option accordingly.

Please refer to the Options to Boot Loader section for a description of the encapsulated vendor-specific options used in the Vendor Specific Information DHCP option-43.

See also the DHCP server configuration example.

The following special DHCP options are used by all ARRIS VIP STB's:

DHCP Option	Name	Description	Type
	next-server	TFTP Server. This option reflects the siaddr member in the boot reply header specified in RFC 2131.	ip-address
	filename	This parameter reflects the file member in the boot reply header specified in RFC 2131. Max length is 128 bytes. Can be one of the following: TFTP Kernel Filename and Path. Sets the multicast address and port for SAP (Session Announcement Protocol). Must be on the following format: "SAP/X/224.2.127.254:9875", where X is the number of maximum allowed open connections.	string
option-16	Swap Server	Sets the server address used when booting with an NFS-mounted root file system. If this parameter is not sent, the next-server ip-address is used as the NFS server address. Note: A special kernel with NFS support is required. Only works on development units.	ip-address
option-17	Root Path	Sets the path to the root file system when booting with NFS. Note: A special kernel with NFS support is required. Only works on development units.	string