- * Possible states: down, up, dormant, carrier, degraded, routable
+ * Possible states:
+ * off: the device is powered down
+ * no-carrier: the device is powered up, but it does not yet have a carrier
+ * dormant: the device has a carrier, but is not yet ready for normal traffic
+ * carrier: the link has a carrier
+ * degraded: the link has carrier and addresses valid on the local link configured
+ * routable: the link has carrier and routable address configured