BOOTP Vendor-Specific Area and Vendor Information Extensions
The creators of BOOTP realized that certain types of hardware might require additional information to be passed from the server to the client in order for the client to boot. For this reason, they put into the BOOTP field format the 64-byte Vend field, also called the Vendor-Specific Area. Including this field makes BOOTP flexible, since it allows vendors to decide for themselves how they want to use the protocol and to tailor it to their needs.
A client can use the Vend field by asking for certain types of information in the field when composing its request. The server can then respond to these requests, and it may also include parameters it wants the client to have, even if they were ...
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