RFC 1020 (rfc1020) - Page 2 of 51
Internet numbers
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1020 Internet Numbers November 1987
The entries below contain the name and network mailbox of the
individuals responsible for each registered network or autonomous
system. The bracketed entry, e.g., [nn,iii], at the right hand
margin of the page indicates a reference for the listed network or
autonomous system, where the number ("nn") cites the document and the
letters ("iii") cites the handle of the responsible person. The NIC
Handle is a unique identifier that is used in the NIC WHOIS (NICNAME)
service. People sometimes change electronic mailboxes. To find out
the latest mailbox or phone number of a contact, use the NIC
WHOIS/NICNAME server or contact A.
The convention used for the documentation of Internet Protocols is to
express numbers in decimal and to picture data in "big-endian" order
[31]. That is, fields are described left to right, with the most
significant octet on the left and the least significant octet on the
right.
The order of transmission of the header and data described in this
document is resolved to the octet level. Whenever a diagram shows a
group of octets, the order of transmission of those octets is the
normal order in which they are read in English. For example, in the
following diagram the octets are transmitted in the order they are
numbered.
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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Transmission Order of Bytes
Whenever an octet represents a numeric quantity the left most bit in
the diagram is the high order or most significant bit. That is, the
bit labeled 0 is the most significant bit. For example, the
following diagram represents the value 170 (decimal).
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Significance of Bits
Romano & Stahl