The management IP addresses are typically used for clustered switches. This field tells the neighbors by which address this switch should be managed (i.e. using SNMP). For cluster members, this is the IP address of the cluster commander.

For non-clustered devices, the algorithm works as follows:

* If the interface has its own IP, use that.

* If the interface is a trunk, use IP of the native VLAN if one exists.

* If the interface is unnumbered, use the IP from the unnumbered source interface.

* Use the switch's global IP address if it exists.

* Use the first IP address configured on the box.

Newer IOSes also support the "cdp source-interface" command which can be used to explicitly specify a CDP IP address.