diff --git a/zipkin2/src/main/java/zipkin2/codec/Encoding.java b/zipkin2/src/main/java/zipkin2/codec/Encoding.java
index 5f5fa41d323..f4cd8954181 100644
--- a/zipkin2/src/main/java/zipkin2/codec/Encoding.java
+++ b/zipkin2/src/main/java/zipkin2/codec/Encoding.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /**
- * Copyright 2015-2017 The OpenZipkin Authors
+ * Copyright 2015-2018 The OpenZipkin Authors
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
  * in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
@@ -31,6 +31,45 @@ public enum Encoding {
       }
       return sizeInBytes;
     }
+  },
+  /**
+   * Repeated (type 2) fields are length-prefixed, the value is a concatenation with no additional
+   * overhead.
+   *
+   * <p>See https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#optional
+   */
+  PROTO3 {
+    /** Returns the size of a length-prefixed field in a protobuf message */
+    @Override public int listSizeInBytes(int encodedSizeInBytes) {
+      return 1 // assumes field number <= 127
+        + unsignedVarint(encodedSizeInBytes) // bytes to encode the length
+        + encodedSizeInBytes; // the actual length
+    }
+
+    /** Returns a concatenation of length-prefixed size for each value */
+    @Override public int listSizeInBytes(List<byte[]> values) {
+      int sizeInBytes = 0;
+      for (int i = 0, length = values.size(); i < length; ) {
+        sizeInBytes += listSizeInBytes(values.get(i++).length);
+      }
+      return sizeInBytes;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * A base 128 varint encodes 7 bits at a time, this checks how many bytes are needed to
+     * represent the value.
+     *
+     * <p>See https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#varints
+     *
+     * <p>This logic is the same as {@code com.squareup.wire.WireOutput.varint32Size} v2.3.0
+     */
+    int unsignedVarint(int value) {
+      if ((value & (0xffffffff << 7)) == 0) return 1;
+      if ((value & (0xffffffff << 14)) == 0) return 2;
+      if ((value & (0xffffffff << 21)) == 0) return 3;
+      if ((value & (0xffffffff << 28)) == 0) return 4;
+      return 5;
+    }
   };
 
   /** Like {@link #listSizeInBytes(List)}, except for a single element. */
diff --git a/zipkin2/src/test/java/zipkin2/codec/EncodingTest.java b/zipkin2/src/test/java/zipkin2/codec/EncodingTest.java
index 9c231989340..e221f40aa57 100644
--- a/zipkin2/src/test/java/zipkin2/codec/EncodingTest.java
+++ b/zipkin2/src/test/java/zipkin2/codec/EncodingTest.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /**
- * Copyright 2015-2017 The OpenZipkin Authors
+ * Copyright 2015-2018 The OpenZipkin Authors
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
  * in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@
  */
 package zipkin2.codec;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -22,13 +21,13 @@
 
 public class EncodingTest {
 
-  @Test public void emptyList_json() throws IOException {
+  @Test public void emptyList_json() {
     List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList();
     assertThat(Encoding.JSON.listSizeInBytes(encoded))
       .isEqualTo(2 /* [] */);
   }
 
-  @Test public void singletonList_json() throws IOException {
+  @Test public void singletonList_json() {
     List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList(new byte[10]);
 
     assertThat(Encoding.JSON.listSizeInBytes(encoded.get(0).length))
@@ -37,10 +36,46 @@ public class EncodingTest {
       .isEqualTo(2 /* [] */ + 10);
   }
 
-
-  @Test public void multiItemList_json() throws IOException {
-    List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList(new byte[3], new byte[4], new byte[5]);
+  @Test public void multiItemList_json() {
+    List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList(new byte[3], new byte[4], new byte[128]);
     assertThat(Encoding.JSON.listSizeInBytes(encoded))
-      .isEqualTo(2 /* [] */ + 3 + 1 /* , */ + 4 + 1  /* , */ + 5);
+      .isEqualTo(2 /* [] */ + 3 + 1 /* , */ + 4 + 1  /* , */ + 128);
+  }
+
+  @Test public void emptyList_proto3() {
+    List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList();
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(encoded))
+      .isEqualTo(0);
+  }
+
+  @Test public void singletonList_proto3() {
+    List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList(new byte[10]);
+
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(encoded.get(0).length))
+      .isEqualTo(1 + 1 /* tag, length */ + 10);
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(encoded))
+      .isEqualTo(1 + 1 /* tag, length */ + 10);
+  }
+
+  @Test public void multiItemList_proto3() {
+    List<byte[]> encoded = Arrays.asList(new byte[3], new byte[4], new byte[128]);
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(encoded))
+      .isEqualTo(0
+        + (1 + 1 /* tag, length */ + 3)
+        + (1 + 1 /* tag, length */ + 4)
+        + (1 + 2 /* tag, length */ + 128)
+      );
+  }
+
+  @Test public void singletonList_proto3_big() {
+    // Not good to have a 5MiB span, but lets test the length prefix
+    int bigSpan = 5 * 1024 * 1024;
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(bigSpan))
+      .isEqualTo(1 + 4 /* tag, length */ + bigSpan);
+
+    // Terrible value in real life as this would be a 536 meg span!
+    int twentyNineBitNumber = 536870911;
+    assertThat(Encoding.PROTO3.listSizeInBytes(twentyNineBitNumber))
+      .isEqualTo(1 + 5 /* tag, length */ + twentyNineBitNumber);
   }
 }