How can I obtain a MAC/Ethernet address?
You must first have an OUI or an IAB, to which you then append 24 or 12 bits respectively, in a way that makes the resulting 48-bit number unique. I.e., your 24 or 12 bits must be unique within your organization, which will require coordination among all the users of your organization's OUI or IAB.
Who can apply for a Standard Group MAC Address Assignment?
The Standard Group MAC Address assignment is for Standards Developers, or a Standards Development group, working to develop a new Standard. This assignment is not for companies that require MAC addresses for their products.
What is the difference between a publicly listed and privately registered OUI, OUI-36 or IAB assignment?
The difference between a public and private assignment is the format of the listing in our public OUI, OUI-36 and IAB listings. A public assignment lists the OUI, OUI-36 or IAB with the company name and address. A private assignment lists the OUI, OUI-36 or IAB with "PRIVATE" next to the number. Requestors of privately registered assignments are sent a renewal invoice annually.
My company wants an additional OUI, OUI-36 or IAB for our new project. Can we receive one?
The Registration Authority requires that you use 95% of the existing assignment's 48-bit numbers before an additional number can be issued to you. You may use a separate subset of the original assignment's 48-bit numbers for your new project.
If this requirement cannot be met, the IEEE can issue an additional assignment to your company providing you send a letter on company letterhead stating that you will not ship product on the new assigned number until 95% of the existing number is used. Your company must use care to ensure that large numbers of identifiers are not left unused. Exceptions to this policy are rarely granted.
What if I my company address or contact information changes after I receive the assignment?
Please complete the Information Change Form. If there is a company name change due to purchase or sale please also fax a press release or some details of the company name change to +1 732-562-1571. The company name change will not be uploaded to the public listing unless the press release or details are received.
How can I obtain the names and ID numbers of those companies who own an assignment?
Please visit the Public Listings page on our web site for links to public directories for each active registry.
Who can I contact if I have additional questions?
For further information, contact IEEE Registration Authority.
What is an Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI)?
An OUI/"company_id" is a 24-bit globally unique assigned number referenced by various standards. For example, the OUI is used in the family of 802 LAN standards: Ethernet, Token Ring, etc. The OUI is usually concatenated with other bits that are assigned by that organization in order to make a globally unique EUI-48 or EUI-64. For example, the Ethernet MAC Address is an EUI-48, unique to one particular Ethernet interface. There are other uses of the OUI however, such as its use as a company identifier in the SNAP protocol.
What is a "company_id"?
The term "company_id" and OUI are equivalent, but the term company_id has been deprecated in favour of OUI.
What is an Individual Address Block (IAB)?
An Individual Address Block 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. The IAB is a particular OUI belonging to the IEEE Registration Authority, 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 Individual Address Block can only be used to assign EUI-48 identifiers. All other potential uses based on the OUI from which the IABs are allocated are reserved, and remain the property of the IEEE Registration Authority. It should also be noted that, although to this date all Individual Address Blocks have been allocated under a single OUI, at some point in the future that OUI will be exhausted and the IEEE Registration Authority will choose a new OUI value for subsequent IAB allocations. Therefore, applications making use of EUI-48 values assigned under an IAB should make no assumptions about the bit pattern that will be present in the OUI portion of the assigned numbers.
What is a 36-bit Organizationally Unique ID (OUI-36)?
An OUI-36 is a 36-bit identifier that can be used as an Individual Address Block or as an extended OUI. The OUI-36 may be appended with 4 organization-supplied bits to form a 40-bit Context Dependent Identifier (CDI-40), with 12 organization-supplied bits to form an EUI-48, or with organization-supplied 28 bits to form an EUI-64. Applications making use of an OUI-36 should make no assumptions about the bit pattern that will be present in the (24-bit most-significant) OUI portion of the assigned OUI-36.
What is an EtherType Field?
The Type Field provides a context for interpretation of the data field of an Ethernet/802.3 data frame (protocol identification). Refer to IEEE Std 802.3, clause 3 and especially sub-clauses 3.1.1 and 3.2.6. See also IEEE Std 802 sub-clause 10.4.
What are other names associated with OUI and IAB?
The other names for OUI and IAB are: MAC Address, Vendor Address, Vendor ID, NIC Address, Ethernet Address and others.
How can I obtain an assignment of an OUI, OUI-36 or an IAB?
You can download the OUI application here after checking the public OUI, OUI-36 and IAB listings to determine whether your company already has an assignment.
You can download the OUI-36 application here after checking the public OUI, OUI-36 and IAB listings to determine whether your company already has an assignment.
You can download the Individual Address Block application here after checking the public OUI, OUI-36 and IAB listings to determine whether your company already has an assignment.
If the company already has an assignment, send an e-mail to the IEEE Registration Authority requesting the contact information for the company, and then make arrangements within your company to use your existing OUI, OUI-36 or IAB.
Once the application is completed successfully, the Requestor will receive an e-mail with a tracking number and payment information. The application will be processed within seven days after receipt of payment as long as there are no problems with the information on the application or the payment. The Requestor will receive an e-mail with the assignment information once the application is processed.
What costs are involved with obtaining an OUI, OUI-36, IAB or EtherType Field?
The OUI is $1,650.00 (US), the OUI-36 is $550.00 (US), the IAB is $550.00 (US) and the EtherType Field is $2,500.00 (US). The only other fees that would be involved are a $15.00 bank fee that is only applicable with the wire transfer payment method and an optional fee to secure private status on the public listing. There are no annual fees for publicly listed assignments.
The IEEE accepts checks (payable to IEEE Standards Dept.), purchase orders, wire transfers, as well as American Express, Visa, Master Card, Diners Club and Discover Card.
What standards are involved with OUI and IAB?
Such Standards referencing the OUI/Company_id include:
- a)
- The OUI defined in IEEE Std 802-2001 can be used to generate 48 bit Universal LAN MAC addresses to identify LAN and MAN stations uniquely, 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 Std 802.3, ISO 8802-3), Token Bus (IEEE Std 802.4, ISO 8802-4), Token Ring (IEEE Std 802.5, ISO/IEC 8802-5), IEEE Std 802.6 (ISO/IEC DIS 8802-6), FDDI (ISO 9314-2) and WLAN (IEEE 802.11, ISO/IEC 8802-11). The IAB, which consists of a block of 4096 EUI-48 values, can also be used to generate 48 bit Universal LAN MAC addresses in conjunction with these standards.
b)- The "company_id" defined in IEEE Std 1212-1991, IEEE Standard Control and Status Register (CSR) Architecture, is referenced by IEEE Std 896.2-1991, IEEE Standard for Futurebus+(TM) Physical Layer Specification and Profiles, and IEEE Std 1596-1992, IEEE Standard for Scalable Coherent Interface, as well as IEEE Std 1394-1995, IEEE Standard for a High Performance Serial Bus. In this context, the 24-b company_id value is a portion of the 32-b Module_Vendor_Id ROM location (and related locations) and uniquely identifies hardware vendors and I/O software interface architectures. Also included is ANSIX3.230-1994 Fibre Channel Standard.
My organization is writing a standard or specification that will include the use of the OUI. How do I make sure this is okay with the IEEE RA?
The IEEE Registration Authority requests that any organization that intends to utilize the Organizationally Unique Identifier in the standardization of a technical area that has not previously been reviewed and approved by the IEEE, please contact the IEEE Registration Authority.
Can I resell or distribute a segment of the OUI after I obtain it?
No. A parent company and a subsidiary company can share an OUI and if a company is sold, the OUI may be transferred to the new company. However, the OUI cannot be sold or distributed by anyone other than IEEE.
How can I obtain an Ethertype field registration?
For registration information, please click here.
Can my OUI or OUI-36 assignment be used with Bluetooth?
The assignment can be used with Blueooth. Please either refer to the IEEE 802.15.1-2005 standard or the Bluetooth website for more information.
Is it permissible to use the value of zero (00-00-00) to identify an OUI as a protocol identifier "as identified by the standard" (as opposed to pointing to a proprietary space)?
No. An OUI value is already associated with the standard that should be used. If no such value is available then an OUI value should be obtained from the Registration Authority.
What is IEEE Std 1451.4-2004, what are its uses and how does it work?
IEEE Std 1451.4 is a member of the IEEE 1451 family of smart transducer standards.
Distinguishing features of IEEE 1451.4 are:
- A mixed-mode communication interface (MMI), which allows digital data and analog waveforms to alternately occupy a single connection, with analog bandwidth not limited by sampling. Also defined are separate data and analog connections for transducer applications not adapted to the shared connection.
- A transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) definition, adapted to very small memories through the use of templates and containing identification and calibration data.
- A template description language (TDL) allowing ongoing development of templates for diverse transducer types.
- A rich template collection adapting 1451.4 to large family of transducers.
- A transducer block definition allowing 1451.4 to adapt to the 1451.1 Object Model.
IEEE Std 1451.4 allows self identification of transducers via the internal TEDS, easing bookkeeping in large measurement arrays. Stored sensitivity data allows data acquisition systems to standardize automatically to the installed transducers and track the transducers. A user field may be used to identify the transducer location in human readable format. The mixed-mode interface allows the analog waveform to be utilized in pristine form, without limitations of bandwidth introduced by sampling.
For a detailed description on IEEE Std 1451.4 operation, click here.
