How Secure Is Your Wireless Network? Safeguarding Your Wi-Fi LAN

Fragmentation

Fragmentation is the process of breaking down larger messages into multiple smaller messages and reassembling them on the other side. The concept here works the same way it does in wired Ethernet. Fragmentation is very useful in noisy, interference-prone environments. The idea is similar to saying “don't put all your eggs in one basket.” If you lose a basket with only one or two eggs, it is less costly than losing the entire dozen. On the other hand, the process of breaking down the dozen eggs into smaller baskets adds time and expense.

Fragmentation does add overhead, but may actually result in greater overall throughput because retransmissions are not as costly.

Note that fragmentation (as well as RTS/CTS) are important topics ...