Polycom MGC Administrator, Administrator'S Manual

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MGC Administrator’s Guide
E-3
DHCP
Short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, a protocol for assigning
dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network. DHCP allows an IP device to
download configuration information upon initialization. For general IP
conferencing, the DHCP is used to answer queries from all the network
entities it manages, such as subnet masks, default routers, DNS Servers, SIP
servers, gatekeeper, static routes, and the MCU IP cards.
The IP devices must be registered with the DHCP using their host name to
enable the DHCP to manage the assignment of IP address to the devices in the
organization’s network.
Usually, the DHCP server automatically recognizes the MAC address of the
IP cards installed in the MCU, and will try to allocate the same IP address
each time the IP card registers with the DHCP.
Once the IP card is assigned an IP address by the DHCP, it registers also with
the gatekeeper using the alias and the IP address it was assigned by the
DHCP. The IP address of the IP card can also be assigned manually, even if a
DHCP is being used for IP address management.
In H.323 conferencing, the DHCP provides the gatekeeper IP address.
In SIP conferencing, the DHCP provides the SIP server IP address.
DNS Server
DNS—Domain Name System—is a method for assigning names to
computers on the Internet. These names are pseudonyms for the computers’
real IP addresses and provide easy to remember and meaningful names for IP
addresses. DNS servers are used to translate domain names or host names into
IP addresses. The domain names and IP addresses are distributed throughout
the Internet between DNS servers. Queries are directed to a DNS server. The
DNS server may be able to provide the IP address itself immediately, or else it
will forward the query to a hierarchy of other servers to retrieve the IP
address.
H.323 SIP
Optional Optional
H.323 SIP
Optional Optional