Bytes has nothing to do with size. It is the smallest addressable unit of memory. Byte's size is system dependant. Almost no one in the world would be having this discussion. Some systems use 7-bit bytes but when they communicate, they use 8-bit bytes: the size of an IP header is measured in octets and also a RADIUS packet.

From RFC:

A summary of the RADIUS data format is shown below. The fields are transmitted from left to right. 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Code | Identifier | Length | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | Authenticator | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Attributes ... +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Regards. On 4/3/2014 5:12 PM, Rui Ribeiro wrote:

Octets means bytes, and in fact it also the most used french word in lieu of byte. Historically, and very long long ago, the point is that byte was not always 8 bits - there were very old mainframes with 9 bits.

Regards,

Message: 5 Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 11:28:11 +0200 From: Chris Knipe <savage@savage.za.org <mailto:savage@savage.za.org>> To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org <mailto:freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org>> Subject: Re: Accounting and octets - a silly one! Message-ID: <CA+4TWFuaf9UCZbNZqPHQAZmQkoUc-5k2OoRKfL3aD7ybrVavhA@mail.gmail.com <mailto:CA%2B4TWFuaf9UCZbNZqPHQAZmQkoUc-5k2OoRKfL3aD7ybrVavhA@mail.gmail.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Thanks all for clearing it up - as I said, really stilly question :-)

I must have pulled some old stuff off google then that referenced octets as *possibly* being bits...

On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Arran Cudbard-Bell <a.cudbardb@freeradius.org <mailto:a.cudbardb@freeradius.org>> wrote: > > On 3 Apr 2014, at 09:36, Chaigneau, Nicolas <nicolas.chaigneau@capgemini.com <mailto:nicolas.chaigneau@capgemini.com>> wrote: > >> >> "octets" means "bytes". > > Yes, in modern systems they are synonymous. > > Arran Cudbard-Bell <a.cudbardb@freeradius.org <mailto:a.cudbardb@freeradius.org>> > FreeRADIUS Development Team > > FD31 3077 42EC 7FCD 32FE 5EE2 56CF 27F9 30A8 CAA2 > > > - > List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html

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Regards, Chris Knipe

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