Brocade BigIron RX Series Configuration Guide - Manual (Page 332)

254 BigIron RX Series Configuration Guide
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LLDP overview
9
LLDP overview
LLDP enables a station attached to an IEEE 802 LAN or MAN to advertise its capabilities to, and to
discover, other stations in the same 802 LAN segments. The advertisements describe the
network’s physical topology and associated systems within that topology. For example, a station
can advertise its management address, the address of the entities that manage the device, and
the ID of the port to which the station is connected.
The information distributed through LLDP (the advertisement) is stored by the receiving device in a
standard Management Information Base (MIB), accessible by a Network Management System
(NMS) using a management protocol such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
The information also can be viewed through the CLI, using show LLDP commands.
Figure 16 illustrates LLDP connectivity.
FIGURE 16 LLDP Connectivity
Benefits of LLDP
LLDP provides the following benefits:
• Network Management
• Simplifies the use of and enhances the ability of network management tools in
multi-vendor environments
• Enables discovery of accurate physical network topologies such as which devices are
neighbors and through which ports they connect, even within multiple VLANs, where all
subnets may not be known
• Enables discovery of stations in multi-vendor environments
I’m a PC
I’m a switch
I’m a switch
I’m a switch
I’m a switch
I’m a switch
I’m an IP Phone
I’m a PBX
port device info
A19 Switch xxxx
F3 OP-PBX xxxx
port device info
A4 IP-Phone xxxx
B6 PC xxxx
B21 Switch xxxx