The size of packet payloads are varied according to the amount of congestion
in a packet network. More data is put in packet payloads when more congestion exits
in the packet network. When network congestion is high, less network bandwidth
is available for transmitting packets. Accordingly, the packet payloads are transmitted
with larger payloads to reduce the percentage of overhead in each packet. When
there is little or no network congestion smaller packet payloads are transmitted.
The additional overhead created in transmitting smaller packets is acceptable when
there is little or no network congestion because the network currently has excess
bandwidth. Thus, the packet payloads are dynamically adjusted to use network resources
more effectively.
