Multiple Option 82 relay agents in a client request path

Where the client is one router hop away from the DHCP server, only the Option 82 field from the first (and only) relay agent is used to determine the policy boundary for the server response. Where there are multiple Option 82 router hops between the client and the server, you can use different configuration options on different relay agents to achieve the results you want. This includes configuring the relay agents so that the client request arrives at the server with either one Option 82 field or multiple fields. (Using multiple Option 82 fields assumes that the server supports multiple fields and is configured to assign IP addressing policies based on the content of multiple fields.)

Example configured to allow only the primary relay agent to contribute an Option 82 field

The above combination allows for detection and dropping of client requests with spurious Option 82 fields. If none are found, the drop policy on the first relay agent adds an Option 82 field, which is then kept unchanged over the next two relay agent hops ("B" and "C".) The server can then enforce an IP addressing policy based on the Option 82 field generated by the edge relay agent ("A".) In this example, the DHCP policy boundary is at relay agent 1.

Example configured to allow multiple relay agents to contribute an Option 82 field

This is an enhancement of the previous example. In this case, each hop for an accepted client request adds a new Option 82 field to the request. A DHCP server capable of using multiple Option 82 fields can be configured to use this approach to keep a more detailed control over leased IP addresses. In this example, the primary DHCP policy boundary is at relay agent "A," but more global policy boundaries can exist at relay agents "B" and "C."

Example allowing only an upstream relay agent to contribute an Option 82 field

Like the first example, above, this configuration drops client requests with spurious Option 82 fields from clients on the edge relay agent. However, in this case, only the Option 82 field from the last relay agent is retained for use by the DHCP server. In this case the DHCP policy boundary is at relay agent "C." In the previous two examples the boundary was with relay "A."