[Scorpion]

DHCP Design for Wireless Clients

With different subnets for wired and wireless clients, you must configure separate DHCP scopes. Because wireless clients can easily roam from one wireless subnet to another, you should configure the lease for the DHCP scopes to have a shorter duration for wireless subnets than for wired subnets.

The typical lease duration for a DHCP scope for wired networks is a specified number of days. Because wireless clients do not release their addresses when roaming to a new subnet, you should shorten the lease duration to several hours for DHCP scopes corresponding to wireless subnets. By setting a shorter lease duration for wireless subnets, the DHCP server will automatically make IPv4 addresses that are no longer being used by wireless clients available for reuse throughout the day instead of leaving the addresses unavailable for days. When determining the optimal lease duration for the wireless clients in your environment, keep in mind the additional processing load that the shorter lease duration places on your DHCP server.