How to read and interpret Packet Formats in RFCs (Request For Comments)?

Question

Often times when I am reading Request For Comments documentation, I always see the packet format section for a protocol outlined like the one below. My question is what do the numbers and different symbols (+-|) represent?

  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 ...
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Thank you

Answer 1

The numbers are bit numbers, starting with the most significant bit. It may seem counter-intuitive that bit 0 is the most significant bit, but it is the first bit transmitted. The Network Byte (and bit) Order is big-endian (most significant first).

The other symbols are to show the individual bits, a kind of incomplete grid.

There are RFCs that explain this. For example, RFC 1700, ASSIGNED NUMBERS:

Data Notations

The convention in the documentation of Internet Protocols is to express numbers in decimal and to picture data in "big-endian" order [COHEN]. 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

Similarly, whenever a multi-octet field represents a numeric quantity the left most bit of the whole field is the most significant bit. When a multi-octet quantity is transmitted the most significant octet is transmitted first.