 Fixed-width length field

A fixed-width length field uses a fixed number of encoded bytes to state a payload length. The payload itself can vary in size. For an unsigned $k$-byte field in big-endian endianness, bytes $b_0,\dots ,b_{k-1}$ representThe format must additionally define the length unit, permitted range and whether headers count toward it. TLS uses unsigned, network-order integers and gives variable-length vectors a prefix wide enough for their declared maximum; its vector length counts bytes, not elements.^[ref]

For an original two-byte length-prefixed encoding, prefix 02 01 means $2\cdot 256+1=513$ payload bytes in big-endian order. The complete field then occupies $515$ bytes. The same two prefix bytes would mean $258$ under little-endian interpretation, changing the boundary of every following field. The byte order is therefore part of the serialization, not a display preference.

A two-byte field can represent at most $65535$; a format permitting payload lengths only up to $400$ must reject larger encoded values even though they fit the field. Conversely, a $300$-byte payload needs prefix 01 2c under this convention. Truncating it to one byte would declare only $44$ bytes. A format change cannot be implemented by silently discarding high-order bits.

Length-prefix validation before allocation checks the declared range and available input before reserving space or consuming the payload. A complete decoder also specifies how truncation and trailing bytes are handled. Byte count and character count differ for encodings such as UTF-8. A length prefix supplies boundaries; a field's role or type may still need binding through cryptographic domain separation.