Dedicated to preserving the central coordinating functions of the global
Internet for the public good.


Application for System (Well-Known) Port Number

The System (Well-Known) Ports are those from 0 through 1023. (See http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers.)

In order to obtain a system port number you need to have a specification documented in the form of an RFC, an Internet-Draft that is intended to be published as an RFC, or a permanently and readily available reference that the IETF could standardize if it chose to.

For more information about Internet-Drafts, please see the following:
http://www.ietf.org/ID.html
http://www.ietf.org/ID-nits.html

For more information about RFCs, please see the following:
www.rfc-editor.org

Please note that a particular application or service should be able to operate only one well-known assigned system port. For applications or services that offer multiple functions it is usually possible to use one port as a multiplexer or rendezvous service. That is, the client always initiates the use of a service by contacting the rendezvous port and indicating in its first message which function is needed. The rendezvous service then either (A) creates (forks, spawns) a process to perform that function and passes the connection to it; or (B) dynamically selects a (high-numbered) port and starts a process to perform the function listening on that port and sends a message back to the client telling it to call the new process on that port.

There is no opportunity for Non-disclosure agreements for System (Well-Known) port numbers.

If you are unable to provide the above requested information and you would like to apply for a user port number, please see the following for an application:
http://www.iana.org/cgi-bin/usr-port-number.pl


We need at least the following information, which is for our internal use, only.

  • Your Name:

  • Your E-mail:

  1. What is the protocol-number between the user machine and the server machine?

  2. What message formats are used?
    [The sequence of fields in a message. For example, length, opcode, argument, filename, null.]

  3. What message types are used?
    [The kinds of messages in the protocol. For example, request, reply, cancel, interrupt.]

  4. What message op codes are used?
    [The operation codes in the protocol. For example, read, write, delete, restore.]

  5. What message sequences are used?
    [The allowed sequences of messages. For example, a client sends a request and must wait for a reply from the server, except it can send a cancel.]

  6. What functions are performed by this protocol?

  7. Is either broadcast or multicast used?
    Yes No

    If yes, how and what for?

  8. Please give us a pointer to your documentation for the system port number.

  9. What is the proposed name of the system port number? (For example: Example System Port)

  10. What SHORT name (14 CHARACTER MAXIMUM) do you want associated with this port number? (For example: example-port)



(Pressing the submit button will cause your application to be transmitted by email to the IANA staff.)


Please send comments on this web site to: webmaster@iana.org
Page Updated 09-July-2004.
Copyright © 2004 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. All rights reserved.