Link-Local Unicast Address

The link-local unicast address can be used only on the local network link. Link-local addresses are not valid nor recognized outside the enterprise. The following example shows the format of the link-local address.

Example 3–1 Parts of the Link-Local Unicast Address

A link-local prefix has the following format:

fe80::interface-ID/10

The following is an example of a link-local address:

fe80::23a1:b152

fe80

Hexadecimal representation of the 10-bit binary prefix 1111111010. This prefix identifies the type of IPv6 address as link local.

interface-ID

Hexadecimal address of the interface, which is usually derived from the 48-bit MAC address.

When you enable IPv6 during Oracle Solaris installation, the lowest numbered interface on the local machine is configured with a link-local address. Each interface requires at least one link-local address to identify the node to other nodes on the local link. Therefore, you need to manually configure link-local addresses for additional interfaces of a node. After configuration, the node uses its link-local addresses for automatic address configuration and neighbor discovery.