diff --git a/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/link/ProbedLinkProvider.java b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/link/ProbedLinkProvider.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a04f83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/link/ProbedLinkProvider.java
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2014-present Open Networking Laboratory
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.onosproject.net.link;
+
+import com.google.common.hash.HashFunction;
+import com.google.common.hash.HashCode;
+import com.google.common.hash.Hashing;
+
+import org.onosproject.cluster.ClusterMetadata;
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction for an entity that provides information about infrastructure
+ * links that are discovered or verified using probe messages.
+ */
+public interface ProbedLinkProvider extends LinkProvider {
+
+    static final String DEFAULT_MAC = "DE:AD:BE:EF:BA:11";
+
+    static String defaultMac() {
+        return DEFAULT_MAC;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Build a stringified MAC address using the ClusterMetadata hash for uniqueness.
+     * Form of MAC is "02:eb" followed by four bytes of clusterMetadata hash.
+     */
+    static String fingerprintMac(ClusterMetadata cm) {
+        if (cm == null) {
+            return DEFAULT_MAC;
+        }
+
+        HashFunction hf = Hashing.murmur3_32();
+        HashCode hc = hf.newHasher().putObject(cm, ClusterMetadata.HASH_FUNNEL).hash();
+        int unqf = hc.asInt();
+
+        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+        sb.append("02:eb");
+        for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
+            byte b = (byte) (unqf >> i * 8);
+            sb.append(String.format(":%02X", b));
+        }
+        return sb.toString();
+    }
+}