Answer Description
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) provides network devices with IP configurations. When a Windows based PC or Server does not have a statically assigned IP and cannot connect to a DHCP server it will assign an Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA) and attempt to use it to communicate on the network. The APIPA address range is 169.254.0.0 to 169.254.255.255.
Wikipedia
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) local area networks A DHCP server must be present on the network A device connected to the network requests an IP address from the DHCP server using the DHCP protocol the server assigns a unique address to the device, identifying it for TCP/IP communication, and supplies other network configuration parameters In the absence of a DHCP server, a device that needs an IP address must be manually assigned a static address by a network administrator, or must assign itself an APIPA address (which will not enable it to communicate outside its local subnet)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia