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Cisco Unified IP Phone Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager  7.1
OL-18913-01
Chapter 1      An Overview of the Cisco Unified IP Phone
  What Networking Protocols are Used?
Cisco Discovery Protocol 
(CDP)
CDP is a device-discovery protocol that 
runs on all Cisco-manufactured 
equipment.
Using CDP, a device can advertise its 
existence to other devices and receive 
information about other devices in the 
network.
The Cisco Unified IP Phone uses CDP to 
communicate information such as auxiliary VLAN ID, 
per port power management details, and Quality of 
Service (QoS) configuration information with the 
Cisco Catalyst switch.
Cisco Peer-to-Peer 
Distribution Protocol 
(CPPDP) 
CPPDP is a Cisco proprietary protocol 
used to form a peer-to-peer hierarchy of 
devices. CPPDP is also used to copy 
firmware or other files from peer devices 
to neighboring devices.
CPPDP is used by the Peer Firmware Sharing 
feature.
Dynamic Host 
Configuration Protocol 
(DHCP)
DHCP dynamically allocates and assigns 
an IP address to network devices.
DHCP enables you to connect an IP phone 
into the network and have the phone 
become operational without your needing 
to manually assign an IP address or to 
configure additional network parameters.
DHCP is enabled by default. If disabled, you must 
manually configure the IP address, subnet mask, 
gateway, and a TFTP server on each phone locally.
Cisco recommends that you use DHCP custom 
option 150. With this method, you configure the 
TFTP server IP address as the option value. For 
additional supported DHCP configurations, refer to 
the “Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol” chapter 
and the “Cisco TFTP” chapter in the 
Cisco Unified Communications Manager System 
Guide.
Hypertext Transfer 
Protocol (HTTP)
HTTP is the standard way of transferring 
information and moving documents across 
the Internet and the web.
Cisco Unified IP Phones use HTTP for the XML 
services and for troubleshooting purposes.
Cisco Unified IP Phones do not support the use of 
IPv6 addresses in the URL. You cannot use a literal 
IPv6 address in the URL or a hostname that maps to 
an IPv6 address.
IEEE 802.1X The IEEE 802.1X standard defines a 
client-server-based access control and 
authentication protocol that restricts 
unauthorized clients from connecting to a 
LAN through publicly accessible ports. 
Until the client is authenticated, 802.1X 
access control allows only Extensible 
Authentication Protocol over LAN 
(EAPOL) traffic through the port to which 
the client is connected. After 
authentication is successful, normal traffic 
can pass through the port. 
The Cisco Unified IP Phone implements the IEEE 
802.1X standard by providing support for the 
following authentication methods: EAP-FAST, 
EAP-TLS, and EAP-MD5.
When 802.1X authentication is enabled on the 
phone, you should disable the PC port and voice 
VLAN. Refer to the “Supporting 802.1X 
Authentication on Cisco Unified IP Phones” section 
on page 1-19 for additional information.
Table 1-2 Supported Networking Protocols on the Cisco Unified IP Phone (continued)
Networking Protocol Purpose Usage Notes