Location Option for DHCP

Hi,

There was some discussion on the DHC-WG mailing-list over the last couple
of weeks about a DHCP option to allow the DHCP server to pass its location
to the DHCP client. This might be useful for enabling LBS on, for example,
an 802.11 AP where the client device's user is in a roaming situation.

The draft is written up (by me) as a personal submission:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-critchley-dhc-location-option-00.txt

Initial feedback seemed mainly to be based around why there would be a
requirement for such a mechanism, and why wouldn't it be satisfied by
RFC1712. Feelings (mine at least) on this last are several:

- An 802.11 AP's IP address can be dynamically assigned, and NATed to the
client, so a DNS-based system might not work well here.
- Overhead for an ISP where the DNS isn't being run on site.
- Security and lack of granularity and user-choice in choosing who gets to
have target information with a DNS-based system.

By the time of submission I hadn't come across the Geopriv requirements,
but have now read them.

The DHCP option draft does make a mention of precision (or "accuracy"),
and datum, but nothing on velocity/vector. It also makes a brief (and
possibly less relevant to DHCP) mention of a cookie-style
application-level permit warning.

I'd be interested in hearing the comments of people in the geopriv WG on
this, if you have a moment to read it.

Many thanks in advance,

Sam
Received on Wed Aug 28 17:52:16 2002