Jumbo frames extend the maximum transmission unit (MTU) from the standard 1,518 bytes to up to 9,000 bytes — reducing overhead for high-throughput applications (storage networks, virtual machine migration).
Standard MTU 1,518 bytes. Jumbo frame MTU typically 9,000 bytes. Reduces per-packet overhead for large transfers. Must be configured consistently end-to-end — mismatched MTU causes fragmentation or packet drops. Common in data center storage (iSCSI, NFS) and virtualization environments.