Advanced Network Services - 8 : IP Control
Here's another service offered by switches: IP control. First we need to understand what IP control is.
IP control governs the distribution of IP addresses. All devices require an IP address if they want to communicate using IP. This includes communication within a network or communication across the Internet. Even connecting to the Internet from home requires an IP address, and the IP address used in this case is normally one loaned to you by your Internet service provider.
A large Internet service provider may have millions of customers, but not all of them use the service at one time - maybe only tens of thousands. The service provider has two options. First, they can assign everyone a permanent address, even though a lot of the addresses will be wasted when people are not online. The second option is to just loan addresses to computers when IP communication is required. In most large networks, this second option is used - IP addresses are dynamic, and they change each time a device is loaned an IP address.
One protocol that networks use for IP control is one we discussed in an earlier lesson: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP. DHCP is used to loan IP addresses to devices as required.
Installing DHCP capability on switches distributes the capability across all the switches in the network, instead of having address services located on just a couple of servers. Now any switch can supply the address services when required.
The functions of DHCP and DNS are called IP control and are available in many intelligent switches.