Help with DHCPv6 client-identifiers

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 11/20/2011 11:30 AM, Simon Hobson wrote:
>
>
> Ted Lemon wrote:
>
>> But the idea that it's completely inexcusable that we didn't use the 
>> MAC address as a host identifier is pretty absurd.
>
> I don't think people are saying you need to use the MAC address as a 
> host identifier. But in the absence of anything better, then not 
> having it available at all does seem a somewhat retrograde step. The 
> fact that (according to a previous post) the cable modem guys are 
> standardising an vendor option for MAC address rather demonstrates the 
> point - if it's going to end up being used in different options by 
> different groups, it would have reduced fragmentation to include it in 
> the standard - once.
>
>
The DOCSIS 3.0 standard was issued in Aug 2006, and mandated the option 
for MAC address in the CableLabs vendor address space. See appendix H.7 
of CM-SP-MULPIv3.0-I01-070804

Looking at the more recent issue 15 of this spec we find in 10.2.5.2.3 
that the device ID (MAC address) is a mandatory option to be present in 
the DHCPv6 solicit.

For those protesting, please keep in mind that one of the security 
requirements in the DOCSIS spec is that the end-user can under no 
circumstance change the MAC address. This security requirement has been 
present since DOCSIS 1.0 spec.