µDHCP server for eCos

Introduction

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It is in essence, a client-server system which allows an automatic setting of many 'network'  parameters on the client.

For example it allows automatic setting of "IP things" such : IP address, netmask, default gateway, default DNS servers.  

Many DHCP clients have been implemented on various platforms. The DHCP protocol is described in RFC 2131

The µDHCP server for eCos runs on the target platform and waits for a client  to request parameters via an ethernet connection (port UDP 67).

Limitations

The eCos port of the µDHCP server has been designed with some limitations in order to keep memory and processor power requirements to a minimum.

  1. The µDHCP server has been tested only with FreeBSD TCP/IP stack.
  2. The µDHCP server only answers on a single network interface (The one specified via configtool) .
  3. The µDHCP server has been ported under GPL Licence. 

µDHCP server API

To use the µDHCP server API the application should include the µDHCP server header file by adding the following line to their C application:

#include <net/DHCPelios/dhcpelios.h>   /* µDHCP server header file *

This file specifies two functions to start and stop the DHCP server thread.

int dhcpd_startup(void)

This function will start the µDHCP server thread.
  

 

int dhcpd_startup(void)

This function will stop the µDHCP server thread.