diff --git a/distributed/comm/tests/test_ws.py b/distributed/comm/tests/test_ws.py
index 08d1cbce0e..5bb826be13 100644
--- a/distributed/comm/tests/test_ws.py
+++ b/distributed/comm/tests/test_ws.py
@@ -209,3 +209,14 @@ async def test_wss_roundtrip(c, s, a, b):
     future = await c.scatter(x)
     y = await future
     assert (x == y).all()
+
+
+@gen_cluster(client=True, scheduler_kwargs={"protocol": "ws://"})
+async def test_ws_roundtrip_large(c, s, a, b):
+    import numpy as np
+
+    x = np.random.random(25000000)
+
+    future = c.submit(lambda x: x, x)
+    y = await future
+    assert (x == y).all()
diff --git a/distributed/comm/ws.py b/distributed/comm/ws.py
index 46ce55b86e..2ab059496b 100644
--- a/distributed/comm/ws.py
+++ b/distributed/comm/ws.py
@@ -120,6 +120,10 @@ async def write(self, msg, serializers=None, on_error=None):
             },
             frame_split_size=BIG_BYTES_SHARD_SIZE,
         )
+        assert all(len(frame) <= BIG_BYTES_SHARD_SIZE for frame in frames), list(
+            map(len, frames)
+        )
+
         n = struct.pack("Q", len(frames))
         try:
             await self.handler.write_message(n, binary=True)
@@ -218,6 +222,10 @@ async def write(self, msg, serializers=None, on_error=None):
             },
             frame_split_size=BIG_BYTES_SHARD_SIZE,
         )
+        assert all(len(frame) <= BIG_BYTES_SHARD_SIZE for frame in frames), list(
+            map(len, frames)
+        )
+
         n = struct.pack("Q", len(frames))
         try:
             await self.sock.write_message(n, binary=True)
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/core.py b/distributed/protocol/core.py
index 1be2d761e3..f4173ccb4c 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/core.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/core.py
@@ -74,6 +74,14 @@ def _encode_default(obj):
                 return msgpack_encode_default(obj)
 
         frames[0] = msgpack.dumps(msg, default=_encode_default, use_bin_type=True)
+
+        if frame_split_size and len(frames[0]) > frame_split_size:
+            from distributed.protocol.utils import frame_split_size as split
+
+            msg_frames = split(frames[0], n=frame_split_size)
+            header = msgpack.dumps({"large-header": True, "count": len(msg_frames)})
+            frames = [header] + msg_frames + frames[1:]
+
         return frames
 
     except Exception:
@@ -108,9 +116,15 @@ def _decode_default(obj):
             else:
                 return msgpack_decode_default(obj)
 
-        return msgpack.loads(
+        result = msgpack.loads(
             frames[0], object_hook=_decode_default, use_list=False, **msgpack_opts
         )
+        if isinstance(result, dict) and "large-header" in result:
+            frame = b"".join(frames[1 : result["count"] + 1])
+            frames = [frame] + frames[result["count"] + 1 :]
+            return loads(frames, deserialize=deserialize, deserializers=deserializers)
+        else:
+            return result
 
     except Exception:
         logger.critical("Failed to deserialize", exc_info=True)