This object is the maximum number of data retransmissions allowed for this specific association before it is considered failed, adjustable by the upper layer, and required to be smaller than the sum of the maximum retransmit counts across all of the association's individual paths. This is the per-association override sitting above the more granular per-destination retry limits, so an admin troubleshooting why an association gives up too soon or too late checks this value against those per-address settings it is meant to be consistent with. At the recommended value of 10, this association tolerates up to 10 total lost-and-resent data chunks, spread across however many destination addresses it has, before SCTP declares the whole association failed.