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The maximum size of data that the application layer can pass on to the TCP layer below is not directly limited by the TCP protocol itself but rather by the maximum segment size (MSS), which depends on the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the underlying network. The MSS is typically 1,460 bytes for an Ethernet network (with an MTU of 1,500 bytes) because it needs to leave room for the TCP and IP headers (20 bytes for TCP, 20 bytes for IPv4 without options), though these values can be different for other types of networks or configurations.
TCP itself can handle data segments of a theoretical maximum size of 65,535 bytes, as the TCP segment length is specified by a 16-bit field in the header, defining the total segment size in bytes. However, practical limits are lower due to the MTU of the underlying network layers, and to avoid fragmentation within the network.
Additionally, for performance optimization, applications and operating systems can adjust the amount of data passed to the TCP layer at one time by tuning socket buffer sizes. These buffer sizes can greatly affect throughput and network efficiency, allowing applications to pass significantly large contiguous blocks of data to TCP, beyond the MTU-imposed limits, which TCP then segments according to the MSS.
Thus, while there isn’t a strict maximum size of data that can be “passed” in one operation from the application layer to the TCP layer due to the segmentation and reassembly capabilities of TCP, the efficient
A. Any size