Re: [homenet] ISPs using DHCP for individual clients

[Daniel Migault <[e-mail]>]

Thanks for the response Mikael,

In this case, I have the impression the L2 switch uses the MAC address to
determine what type of devices is initiating the DHCP request and orient
the DHCP request to the appropriated VLN and DHCP server. I suspect that
the type of device is determined the OUIs and the switch has a table of the
corresponding OUI and the potential HWG MAC address and that such table is
loaded as part of the configuration of switch.

If my understanding is correct, this is a bit different from our use case.
I think the situation I was describing would have been closer to the HGW
sends in a DHCP request its MAC address and the MAC address is registered
into the end user account. But that is a useful feedback though, as it
chose having a portal and expecting the end user to provision the CPE is
something common. This will relax the purpose of zero configuration but
sounds more in line with what is currently deployed.

Yours,
Daniel

On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 4:06 AM Mikael Abrahamsson <[e-mail]> wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Nov 2020, Daniel Migault wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > While designing the DHCP options to configure the HNA we asked ourselves
> > how likely ISP are:
> >
> > A) How an ISP is likely to perform an action that is user specific based
> on
> > a DHCP request. In our case the HNA sends to the DHCP server the
> > certificate it will use to authenticate itself to a server the ISP has
> > control on. The action is that the ISP will need to provision the server
> > with that certificate.
> >
> > B) How an ISP is likely to provide a DHCP response that is specific to an
> > individual user. The specific information is typically expected to be
> > something provisioned for that user.
>
> I'm not 100% sure I understand your question but let me write some text
> and see if it helps.
>
> In Sweden, ETTH is often delivered with an L2 switch of some kind, can be
> media converter or just CPE. Into this, you can connect a router, an ATA
> (PSTN box), a TV STB, and based on the MAC address and possibly the
> contents of the DHCP request, you'll get different responses, possibly
> even that the device reconfigures ports into different VLANs etc. The term
> used is called "free seating" (I have no idea where this came from) and
> the idea is to reduce customer support calls when customers plug in
> equipment into the "wrong" port, so instead just let customers plug into
> any port and it just works. The DHCP responses might also be different
> depending on type of device etc.
>
> We also have cases where you register your HGW MAC address in a portal and
> depending on this MAC address, your HGW will either receive IPv4 GUA or
> end up behind CGN. So this differentiation is done on MAC address. Don't
> know if you consider this "part of DHCP request" or not.
>
> --
> Mikael Abrahamsson    email: [e-mail]
>


-- 
Daniel Migault
Ericsson