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.
Famous quotes containing the word overhead:
“What a fog! Plane been buzzin’ around overhead for the last half hour. Must be like trying to find your way through the inside of a cow. I never did see such a country. Even the birds are walkin’.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
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