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TCP Maximum Segment Size (MSS) and Relationship to IP Datagram Size
(Page 1 of 3)
TCP segments are the messages
that carry data between TCP devices. The Data field is where
the actual data being transmitted is carried, and since the length of
the Data field in TCP is variable, this raises an interesting
question: how much data should we put into each segment? With protocols
that accept data in blocks from the higher layers there isn't as much
of a question, but TCP accepts data as a constant stream from the applications
that use it. This means it must decide how many bytes to put into each
message that it sends.
A primary determinant of how much
data to send in a segment is the current status of the sliding
window mechanism on the part of the receiver.
When Device A receives a TCP segment from Device B, it
examines value of the Window field to know the limit on how much
data Device B is allowing Device A to send in its next
segment. There are also important issues in the selection and adjustment
of window size that impact the operation of the TCP system as a whole,
which are discussed in the
reliability section.
In addition to the dictates of the
current window size, each TCP device also has associated with it a ceiling
on TCP size—a segment size that will never be exceeded regardless
of how large the current window is. This is called the maximum segment
size (MSS). When deciding how much data to put into a segment, each
device in the TCP connection will choose the amount based on the current
window size, in conjunction with the various algorithms described in
the reliability section, but it will never be so large that the amount
of data exceeds the MSS of the device to which it is sending.
 Note: I need to point out that the name “maximum segment size” is in fact misleading. The value actually refers to the maximum amount of data that a segment can hold—it does not include the TCP headers. So if the MSS is 100, the actual maximum segment size could be 120 (for a regular TCP header) or larger (if the segment includes TCP options).
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