Is there an optimal byte size for sending data over a network?

Question

I assume 100 bytes is too small and can slow down larger file transfers with all of the writes, but something like 1MB seems like it may be too much. Does anyone have any sugge

Answer 1

If you are using TCP/IP over Ethernet, the maximum packet size is about 1500 bytes. If you try to send more than that at once, the data will be split up into multiple packets before being sent out on the wire. If the data in your application is already packetized, then you might want to choose a packet size of just under 1500 so that when you send a full packet, the underlying stack doesn't have to break it up. For example, if every send you do is 1600 bytes, the TCP stack will have to send out two packets for each send, with the second packet being mostly empty. This is rather inefficient.

Having said that, I don't know much of a visible impact on performance this will have.