Registration Authority

IEEE offers Registration Authority programs or registries which maintain lists of unique identifiers under standards and issue unique identifiers to those wishing to register them. The IEEE Registration Authority assigns unambiguous names to objects in a way which makes the assignment available to interested parties.

INDIVIDUAL ADDRESS BLOCK (IAB)

An IAB is for people who need less than 4097 unique 48-bit numbers (EUI-48) and thus find it hard to justify buying their own OUI. It is a particular OUI concatenated with 12 additional IEEE-provided bits, leaving only 12 bits for the owners to assign to their (up to 4096) individual devices.

Unlike an OUI, which allows the assignee to assign values in various different number spaces (for example, EUI-48, EUI-64, and the various CDI number spaces), the IAB can only be used to assign EUI-48 identifiers.

The Individual Address Block (IAB) can be used in conjunction with a number of standards. It does not limit your right to use your assignment for multiple purposes.


Registration Fees

ProductsFeesTotal Due
Publicly Registered IAB
(company name & address on the public listing)		US $645US $645
Privately Registered IAB
(company name and address NOT on the public listing)		US $645 + $1,130
(privacy fee addition)		US $1,775
Yearly Confidentiality Renewal Fee*
(for privately registered assignments only)		US $1,130US $1,130
*Effective December 2003, companies requesting confidentiality for IAB assignments are required to pay a fee for privacy. Assignees will also be required to pay an annual fee to maintain confidentiality. Payment options for the renewal fee are credit card, check or wire transfer. IEEE does not accept requests for applicant-specified identifiers.


Application Information
Please search the public listing to determine whether your Organization has already been issued an IAB assignment. If so, you may email us to obtain contact information for the assignment. If a new assignment is required, a Usage Percentage Letter must be submitted.

  1. Complete and electronically submit the IAB application. Do not submit more than one application unless you are requesting more than one assignment. Applications expire after 30 days.
  2. A tracking number and any questions regarding your application will be sent via email to the REQUESTOR.
  3. Be advised that the credit card will be charged once the application is submitted. Assignment details and a Paid Invoice are sent to the REQUESTOR.
  4. The public IAB listing is updated once every 24 hours, due to this new assignments will not be immediately available in the directory.


Related Standards
The OUI defined in ANSI/IEEE Std 802®-2001 can be used to generate 48-bit Universal LAN MAC addresses to uniquely identify LAN and MAN stations, and Protocol Identifiers to identify public and private protocols. These are used in Local and Metropolitan Area Network applications. The relevant standards include:

  • CSMA/CD (IEEE 802.3™, ISO 8802-3)
  • Token Bus (IEEE 802.4™, ISO 8802-4)
  • Token Ring (IEEE 802.5™, ISO/IEC 8802-5)
  • IEEE 802.6™ (ISO/IEC DIS 8802-6) FDDI (ISO 9314-2)
  • WLAN (IEEE 802.11™, ISO/IEC 8802-1

The 'company_id' relevant standards include as defined in IEEE Std 1212™-1991 Control and Status Register (CSR) Architecture referenced by IEEE Std 896.2™-1991 Futurebus+Physical Layers and Profiles:

  • IEEE Std 1596™-1992 Scalable Coherent Interface
  • IEEE Std 1394™-1995 Serial Bus document. In this context, the 24-bit company_id value is a portion of the 32-bit Module_Vendor_Id ROM location (and related locations) and uniquely identifies hardware vendors and I/O software interface architectures.
  • ANSI X3.230-1994 Fibre Channel Standard

The IEEE Registration Authority will assign an additional IAB to any organization requesting one, providing they submit a letter on company letterhead to the IEEE Standards Department, stating that their company will not ";ship" product in the new block assignment until well after they have reached (shipped) at least 95% of the block assignment, in the context of a specified standard. Your company should ensure that large numbers of derived identifiers are not left unused.