BOOTP/DHCP

DHCP is an extension of the BOOTP mechanism. In other words, DHCP uses BOOTP as its transport protocol. This behavior allows existing BOOTP clients to interoperate with DHCP servers without requiring any change to the clients' initialization software; the following table shows basic comparisons between these two protocols:

BOOTP/DHCP

BOOTP

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

Meaning

Bootstrap Protocol

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol extension of BOOTP

Year

1985

1993

UDP Server Port

67

UDP Client port

68

Services
  • IPv4 address assignment
  • Obtaining IPv4 configuration parameter
  • Limited number of client configuration parameters called vendor extensions
  • IP address assignment
  • Leases
  • Support legacy BOOTP functionality ...

Get Packet Analysis with Wireshark now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial