Protocol overhead

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Protocol overhead refers to metadata and network routing information sent by an application, which uses a portion of the available bandwidth of a communications protocol. This extra data, making up the protocol headers and application-specific information is referred to as overhead, since it does not contribute to the content of the message.

Protocol overhead can be expressed as a percentage of non-application bytes (protocol and frame synchronization) divided by the total number of bytes in the message.

References

Common Performance Issues in Network Applications Part 1: Interactive Applications, Windows XP Technical Articles, Microsoft
Protocol Overhead in IP/ATM Networks, Minnesota Supercomputer Center

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