Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) : The Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) enables a client workstation to initialize with a minimal IP stack and request its IP address, a gateway address, and the address of a name server from a BOOTP server.
If BOOTP is to be used in your network, the server and client are usually on the same physical LAN segment. BOOTP can only be used across bridged segments when source-routing bridges are being used, or across subnets, if you have a router capable of BOOTP forwarding.
BOOTP is a draft standard protocol. Its status is recommended. There are also updates to BOOTP, some relating to interoperability with DHCP .BOOTP are draft standards with a status of elective and recommended, respectively. The BOOTP protocol was originally developed as a mechanism to enable diskless hosts to be remotely booted over a network as workstations, routers, terminal concentrators, and so on.
It allows a minimum IP protocol stack with no configuration information to obtain enough information to begin the process of downloading the necessary boot code. BOOTP does not define how the downloading is done, but this process typically uses TFTP “Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)”. Although still widely used for this purpose by diskless hosts, BOOTP is also commonly used solely as a mechanism to deliver configuration information to a client that has not been manually configured.
The BOOTP process involves the following steps :
(1) The client determines its own hardware address; this is normally in a ROM on the hardware.
(2) A BOOTP client sends its hardware address in a UDP datagram to the server.
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