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.

ORGANIZATIONALLY UNIQUE IDENTIFIER (OUI) OR 'COMPANY_ID'

An OUI or 'company_id' is a 24-bit globally unique assigned number referenced by various standards. The OUI is usually concatenated with 24 or 40 bits by an Organization to create a 48-bit or 64-bit number that is unique to a particular piece of hardware. It can be used to create MAC Addresses, Bluetooth Device Addresses or Ethernet Addresses.

There are other uses of the OUI as well, such as its use as a company identifier in the SNAP protocol.

The OUI or 'company_id' can be used in conjunction with a number of standards. It does not limit your right to use your assignment for both OUI and 'company_id' purposes.


Registration Fees

ProductsFeesTotal Due
Publicly Registered OUI
(company name & address on the public listing)		US $1,885US $1,885
Privately Registered OUI
(company name and address NOT on the public listing)		US $1,885 + $2,260
(privacy fee addition)		US $4,145
Yearly Confidentiality Renewal Fee*
(for privately registered assignments only)		 US $2,260 US $2,260
*Effective 5 December 2003, companies requesting confidentiality for OUI 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 OUI 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 submit the OUI application. Do not submit more than one application unless requesting more than one assignment (see policy regarding obtaining an additional assignment). Applications expire after 30 days.
  2. A tracking number will be sent via email to the REQUESTOR. Any questions regarding your application will be sent via email to the REQUESTOR.
  3. Applications are processed within 7 business days from receipt of payment. 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 OUI listing is updated once every 24 hours, so new assignments will not be immediately viewable on the directory.


Related Standards
The OUI defined in IEEE 802®-2001 can be used to generate 48-bit Universal LAN MAC addresses to uniquely identify Local and Municipal Area Networks stations, and Protocol Identifiers to identify public and private protocols. These are used in LAN and MAN applications. The relevant standards include but not limited to:

  • 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 8802-11)

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

  • IEEE 1596™-1992 Scalable Coherent Interface
  • IEEE 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 OUI to any organization requesting one, providing they submit a letter on company letterhead to the IEEE Registration Authority c/o 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.