Você está certo, o tamanho do arquivo não reflete a quantidade de dados transmitidos: o formato pcap contém metadados extras.
Uma boa ferramenta para obter o tamanho real dos dados é usar capinfos, que faz parte do wireshark-common
pacote.
Exemplo de saída, observe o valor do tamanho dos dados :
$ capinfos plop.pcap
File name: plop.pcap
File type: Wireshark/tcpdump/... - pcap
File encapsulation: Linux cooked-mode capture
File timestamp precision: microseconds (6)
Packet size limit: file hdr: 262144 bytes
Number of packets: 2049
File size: 335 kB
Data size: 302 kB
Capture duration: 88.022993 seconds
First packet time: 2017-08-22 09:48:45.233556
Last packet time: 2017-08-22 09:50:13.256549
Data byte rate: 3442 bytes/s
Data bit rate: 27 kbps
Average packet size: 147.88 bytes
Average packet rate: 23 packets/s
SHA1: 51ce5b43206995385ef7f95948848cf6a869367e
RIPEMD160: fe861b6f16816d952c7a6c88bec63cb30246d125
MD5: 5ee593b0a5631c42cfebdc20ff0086e7
Strict time order: False
Number of interfaces in file: 1
Interface #0 info:
Encapsulation = Linux cooked-mode capture (25/113 - linux-sll)
Capture length = 262144
Time precision = microseconds (6)
Time ticks per second = 1000000
Number of stat entries = 0
Number of packets = 2049