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Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 7 Administering the Switch
Managing the ARP Table
Managing the ARP Table
To communicate with a device (over Ethernet, for example), the software first must determine the 48-bit
MAC or the local data link address of that device. The process of determining the local data link address
from an IP address is called address resolution.
The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) associates a host IP address with the corresponding media or
MAC addresses and the VLAN ID. Taking an IP address as input, ARP determines the associated MAC
address. Once a MAC address is determined, the IP-MAC address association is stored in an ARP cache
for rapid retrieval. Then the IP datagram is encapsulated in a link-layer frame and sent over the network.
Encapsulation of IP datagrams and ARP requests and replies on IEEE 802 networks other than Ethernet
is specified by the Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP). By default, standard Ethernet-style ARP
encapsulation (represented by the arpa keyword) is enabled on the IP interface.
ARP entries added manually to the table do not age and must be manually removed.
For CLI procedures, refer to the Cisco IOS Release 12.1 documentation on Cisco.com.