>"The source IP address for the initial discovery is indeed 0.0.0.0, which is not intuitive, but the rest of the DHCP exchange is handled with real IP addresses like normal IP traffic.
No its not. The source host putting a DHCP discover request on the wire doesn't have a real IP until the complete Discovery, Offer, Request and Ack sequence is completed which is two round trips during which time the source IP of the client is still 0.0.0.0. This is why DHCP uses raw sockets.
>"DHCP is very much an IP protocol (see DHCP relay for how it transits IP networks)."
I would say that DHCP is very much a layer 7 protocol, as it deals with leases and renewals etc. It uses IP yes because it uses UDP and UDP must use IP but I don't think that makes it an IP protocol.
No its not. The source host putting a DHCP discover request on the wire doesn't have a real IP until the complete Discovery, Offer, Request and Ack sequence is completed which is two round trips during which time the source IP of the client is still 0.0.0.0. This is why DHCP uses raw sockets.
See: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wireshark/DHCP
>"DHCP is very much an IP protocol (see DHCP relay for how it transits IP networks)."
I would say that DHCP is very much a layer 7 protocol, as it deals with leases and renewals etc. It uses IP yes because it uses UDP and UDP must use IP but I don't think that makes it an IP protocol.
See: http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_ApplicationLayerLayer7.htm