RFC 2322 (rfc2322) - Page 2 of 7

Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp

RFC 2322          Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp      1 April 1998


   So a way of centrally administrating IP-numbers and giving them out
   to people to use on their computers had to be devised. After some
   discussion, the idea came up of using wooden clothes-pegs. Using pegs
   has the following advantages in respect to other methods:

      - cheap
      - a peg is a 'token' and represents one IP-number, therefore
        making the status of the IP-number (allocated or not allocated)
        visible.
      - a peg can be clipped to a network cable giving a very clear
        view of where a given IP-number is in use.

   Credits for the original idea of using wooden pegs go to Daniel
   Ockeloen.

The server.

   The server can have many appearances. At HIP it was a large tent
   situated at the central field where all the activities were. It can
   also be a small table in the corner of a terminalroom.

   The server can hand out two parts to the client, the peg and a paper
   with additional fields fixed for the site the server is running for.
   We will describe both here.

The peg.

   On the peg the IP-number is mentioned. The text on the peg can be
   described according to the following BNF:

   Total ::== IP | Net

   IP ::== num.num.num.num | num.num | num

   Net ::== num.num.num/mask | num.num/mask | num/mask

   num ::== {1..255}

   mask ::== {8..31}

   The Net-method of writing larger nets is an optional part of the
   protocol, it doesn't have to be implemented. If it is implemented, it
   requires more administration at the server (see below).

   The short versions of the IP-number with only 1 or 2 chunks are meant
   for large servers where writing the whole number on the peg is just
   boring and time-consuming. It requires the prefix to be mentioned on
   the additional field paper, but that can be produced in more



van den Hout, et. al.        Informational