DHCP
From Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial - A Beginner's handbook
DHCP is dynamic host control protocol. It's a protocol used by a server to assign dynamic IP automatically to the clients connected in a network .In the server a range of IP with a subnet defined in the DHCP configuration file. When the DHCP service is started it assign IP automatically to the clients. The server may assign static IP to a client if in the configuration file the ip is bind with the MAC of client.