Chris White wrote:
DHCP alone is not a viable option in this model. How do you get the end user traffic to the ISP and back in a pure IP environment?
Very easily. The ISP has a NAS at the headend (or even in every block). The cablemodem is a router that talks to the NAS, just as in any other environment. The NAS performs DHCP, just as in any other environment. The carrier provides commodity service, just as in any other environment. ;-) For access control, you need IPsec. But you need IPsec for security and privacy anyway on a broadcast medium. This is really no different than wireless. (Hint, we discussed this stuff in the IP/cable working group many years ago.... And I specified Mobile-IP to handle moving seamlessly between cellular and broadband networks back in '92-93. Should stop rehashing very old arguments.)
In a wireless environment this becomes even more of a consideration as most of the current hardware is limited in ATM or L3 functionality...
I shudder to think of trying to deploy ATM over wireless. I don't know why you would deploy at L3, it seems rather far away -- but if you perhaps mean IP, then I don't expect wireless that isn't IP capable, going back to Tetherless Access Limited, and before that to amateur radio. Nobody would use it otherwise! William Allen Simpson Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32