"Newer high-speed public Internet access technologies call for a high-speed modem to have a local area network (LAN) attachment to one or more customer premise hosts. It is advantageous to use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) as defined in RFC 2131 to assign customer premise host IP addresses in this environment. However@ a number of security and scaling problems arise with such ""public"" DHCP use. This document describes a new DHCP option to address these issues. This option extends the set of DHCP options as defined in RFC 2132. The new option is called the Relay Agent Information option and is inserted by the DHCP relay agent when forwarding client-originated DHCP packets to a DHCP server. Servers recognizing the Relay Agent Information option may use the information to implement IP address or other parameter assignment policies. The DHCP Server echoes the option back verbatim to the relay agent in server-to-client replies@ and the relay agent strips the option before forwarding the reply to the client. The ""Relay Agent Information"" option is organized as a single DHCP option that contains one or more ""sub-options"" that convey information known by the relay agent. The initial sub-options are defined for a relay agent that is co-located in a public circuit access unit. These include a ""circuit ID"" for the incoming circuit@ and a ""remote ID"" which provides a trusted identifier for the remote high-speed modem."