Do headers on mobile requests and responses count as part of the bandwidth?

Question

I am building an Arduino-based device that needs to send data over the internet to a remote server. It needs to do this as frequently as possible but also use as little bandwidth as possible. It will probably work over GSM/EDGE (cellular networking).

The data I'd like to send is about 40 bytes in size - really minimal. I'd like to send this packet to the server about once a minute, but also receive a packet of around that size in response once in a while.

The bandwidth on my server is no problem - the bandwidth on the device's internet connection is, i.e. the cellular data.

Do headers on mobile requests and responses count as part of the bandwidth?

Answer 1

Yes, the total packet size is all data that is sent. Assuming a TCP packet you lose 20 bytes right from the start. If you get intimate with Wireshark you can see exactly what's happening.