public static void writeArrayLength(int len, DataOutput out) throws IOException {
    if (len == -1) {
      out.writeByte(NULL_ARRAY);
    } else if (len <= MAX_BYTE_ARRAY_LEN) {
      out.writeByte(len);
    } else if (len <= 0xFFFF) {
      out.writeByte(SHORT_ARRAY_LEN);
      out.writeShort(len);
    } else {
      out.writeByte(INT_ARRAY_LEN);
      out.writeInt(len);
    }
  }
array len encoded as unsigned short in next 2 bytes

@since GemFire 5.7
geode-serialization/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/internal/serialization/StaticSerialization.java