DHCP Protocol and Load Balancing.

 Purpose of DHCP Protocol

DHCP is the dynamic host configuration protocol that is used to assign IP addresses to the host dynamically. In large networks assigning IPs to every host located at different locations becomes a very hectic job. So, we use DHCP to avoid time and resource wastage by configuring DHCP addresses.

When the host is connected to the network, they send a broadcast DHCP to discover the message, and the message is responded to by the server and offers an IP address to the host. We can configure routers and layer-3 switches as DHCP servers, or they can be used to relay the DHCP information.

We have two ways to use DHCP services in our network.

·         Distributed DHCP Services

·         Centralized DHCP Services.

Distributed DHCP Services

The DHCP services are configured on DHCP-supporting devices like routers and multi-layer switches. The main benefits of distributing DHCP services are introducing redundancy in the network and reducing the DHCP request on the network which may consume network bandwidth. But the drawback is their management may be difficult.

 

Centralized DHCP Services

The DHCP services are configured on a centralized dedicated server and to avoid a single point of failure normally more than two DHCP servers are configured. The centralized configuration makes the management of the IP resources and operations very easy.

 

Load Balancing

Load balancing is the distribution of traffic across multiple links in a network.

Load balancing is done in a network where we have sufficient links, and a good amount of bandwidth exists between the source and destination.  The necessary condition for load balancing is that the routes learned by the router must be through the same protocol.

Load balancing reduces the traffic on individual links, thus good latency and fewer delays are observed which increase the performance of the network. OSPF, EIGRP, and BGP are the protocols that support load balancing.

Load balancing is considered one of the important features of a good network design because of the following benefits.

·         It increases the reliability of a network.

·         Helps to avoid outages in case of hardware and software failures.

·         It helps to avoid overloading traffic on a single node.

·         Load distribution helps to reduce latency and ping delays.

Three-tier hierarchical Network Design

In hierarchical network design, we design the network in layers to get the below benefits

·         Network Simplification

Network architecture gets simplified as we know what we must do at a specific layer we do not need to waste on things not located at a required layer.

·         Function Concentration

We assign specific functions to specific layers and only do the relevant configurations.

·         Fault Isolation.

While troubleshooting issues we know where the fault should lie.

·         Improved Security

Different security measures can be taken at different layers depending upon their capabilities.

·         Redundancies

High-level redundancies are established to minimize the impact of hardware failure and link failure.