Discovery Messages

Discovery messages announce and maintain the presence of a router in a network. Routers indicate their presence in a network by sending hello messages periodically. Hello messages are transmitted as UDP packets to the LDP port at the group multicast address for all routers on the subnet.

LDP uses the following discovery procedures:

• Basic discovery—A router periodically sends LDP link hello messages through an interface. LDP link hello messages are sent as UDP packets addressed to the LDP discovery port. Receipt of an LDP link hello message on an interface identifies an adjacency with the LDP peer router.
• Extended discovery—LDP sessions between routers not directly connected are supported by LDP extended discovery. A router periodically sends LDP targeted hello messages to a specific address. Targeted hello messages are sent as UDP packets addressed to the LDP discovery port at the specific address. The targeted router decides whether to respond to or ignore the targeted hello message. A targeted router that chooses to respond does so by periodically sending targeted hello messages to the initiating router.