The Use of Octets in Computers and Networking

Octets are bytes… sometimes

In computer and internet technology, an octet represents an 8-bitquantity.

Octets range in mathematical value from 0 to 255.

Octets vs. Bytes

All modern computer systems implement abyteas an eight-bit quantity.

Octets and bytes are the same from this perspective.

For this reason, the two terms are used interchangeably.

web link professionals began using the term octet many years ago to maintain this distinction.

[octet], as in192.168.0.1.

AnIPv6address contains 16 octets rather than four.

Whereas IPv4 notation separates every single octet with a dot (.

Headers and Footers

Octets also refer to individual byte units withinnetwork protocolheaders and footers.

connection engineers sometimes classify protocols as octet stuffing or octet counting.

Both approaches allow message recipients to determine when they are finished processing the incoming data.

Each has advantages depending on the intended use of the protocol.