IPv4 address length technical design

Thu Oct 4 09:57:34 UTC 2012

Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:

> And the -10s and -20s were the major reason RFCs refer to octets
> rather than bytes, as they had a rather slippery notion of "byte"
> (anywhere from 6 to 9 bits, often multiple sizes used *in the
> same program*).

Not quite correct.  Anywhere from 1 to 36 bits, and not spanning
a 36-bit word boundary.  Essentialy what is now known as a bit field.

--Johnny