What is CDP?
1)The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is a protocol for discovering devices on a network. Each CDP-compatible device sends periodic messages to a well-known multicast address. Devices discover each other by listening at that address.
2)CDP operation can be enabled or disabled on the FastHub through the object cdpInterfaceEnable. When enabled, the network management module (NMM) SNMP agent discovers neighboring devices and builds its local cache with information about these devices
HOW CDP WORKS?
1)CDP is a media and protocol independent protocol that runs on all Cisco-manufactured equipment including routers, bridges, access and communication servers, and switches. Using CDP, you can view information about all the Cisco devices directly attached to the switch. In addition, CDP detects native VLAN and port duplex mismatches.
2)Network management applications can retrieve the device type and SNMP-agent address of neighboring Cisco devices using CDP. This enables applications to send SNMP queries to neighboring devices. CDP allows network management applications to discover Cisco devices that are neighbors of already known devices, in particular, neighbors running lower-layer, transparent protocols.
3)CDP runs on all media that support Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP), including LAN and Frame Relay. CDP runs over the Data Link layer only. Cisco devices never forward CDP packets. When new CDP information is received, Cisco devices discard old information.