Protocols such as ARP and Neighbor Discovery have data fields thatcontain link-layer addresses. In order to interoperate properly, asender setting such a field must insure that the receiver extractsthose bits and interprets them correctly. In most cases, such fieldsmust be in 'canonical form'. Unfortunately, not all LAN adaptors areconsistent in their use of canonical form, and implementations mayneed to explicitly bit swap individual bytes in order to obtain thecorrect format. This document provides information to implementorsto help them avoid the pitfall of using non-canonical forms whencanonical forms are required.
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