Octet (computing)

It is frequently used in the Request for Comments (RFC) publications of the Internet Engineering Task Force to describe storage sizes of network protocol parameters.

In 2000, Bob Bemer claimed to have earlier proposed the usage of the term octet for "8-bit bytes" when he headed software operations for Cie. Bull in France in 1965 to 1966.

[3] In France, French Canada and Romania, octet is used in common language instead of byte when the eight-bit sense is required; for example, a megabyte (MB) is termed a megaoctet (Mo).

Early examples of usage exist in British,[2] Dutch and German sources of the 1960s and 1970s, and throughout the documentation of Philips mainframe computers.

[4] An IPv4 address consists of four octets, usually displayed individually as a series of decimal values ranging from 0 to 255, each separated by a full stop (dot).