Full Form of DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHCP Full Form is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. DHCP is a standard client or server protocol used over IP networks. This protocol is mainly used for assigning dynamic IP addresses to the user devices in a particular network. Simply, DHCP dynamically distributes certain configuration parameters like IP addresses, subnet mask or default gateway, related to the network. Hosts can smoothly obtain required TCP/IP information from a particular DHCP server by the help of DHCP.
As DHCP helps the host to configure certain parameters automatically, it reduces the requirement and need of a system or network administrator to configure those things manually. Dynamic allocation, automatic allocation and manual allocation — these are the three methods which are typically used by DHCP to help a computer obtaining IP addresses.
By the use of UDP (User Datagram Protocol), a connectionless service model is effectively employed by DHCP. DHCP discovery, DHCP offer, DHCP request, and DHCP acknowledgement are the four primary and important stages in a DHCP operation. This protocol allows a device to obtain different working IP addresses every time it connects to the parent network. It uses a mix of static and dynamic addresses. Therefore, by the help of DHCP, user’s IP address can automatically change while the user is still connected to the network through that address.