Ascend assures me that the IP address negotiation can be turned off
in atleast their 4.4 software release and that this feature has been
available for some time.
Well, if it is, it isn't documented anywhere I can find.
Then again that's about par for Ascend's documentation.
Also note, there are important functional differences between
"4.4" on the different models of Ascend boxes, i.e. p50, p400,
and Max.