Stateless Autoconfiguration Requirements

IPv6 defines mechanisms for both stateful address and stateless address autoconfiguration. Stateless autoconfiguration requires no manual configuration of hosts, minimal (if any) configuration of routers, and no additional servers. The stateless mechanism allows a host to generate its own addresses by using a combination of local information and non-local information that is advertised by routers. Routers advertise prefixes that identify the subnet or subnets that are associated with a link. Hosts generate an interface identifier that uniquely identifies an interface on a subnet. An address is formed by combining the the prefix and the interface identifier. In the absence of routers, a host can generate only link-local addresses. However, link-local addresses are only sufficient for allowing communication among nodes that are attached to the same link.