Analyzing a source on a frequency by frequency basis is possible but time consuming. The whole frequency range is divided into set of frequencies called bands. Each band covers a specific range of frequencies. For this reason, a scale of octave bands and one-third octave bands has been developed. A band is said to be an octave in width when the upper band frequency is twice the lower band frequency. A one-third octave band is defined as a frequency band whose upper band-edge frequency (f2) is the lower band frequency (f1) times the cube root of two.
References
Octave band Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA