The Transmission Control Protocol
Explore the Transmission Control Protocol, a connection-oriented transport layer protocol that guarantees reliable data transfer, flow control, and congestion management. Learn how TCP segments data, handles ordering, retransmits lost messages, and supports applications like FTP, SSH, email, and web browsing.
Introduction to TCP
TCP, or the transmission control protocol, is one of the two key protocols of the transport layer. TCP is what makes most modern applications as enjoyable and reliable as they are. HTTP’s implementation, for example, would be very complex, if it weren’t for TCP.
TCP is a robust protocol meant to adapt to a diverse range of network topologies, bandwidths, delays, message sizes, and other varying factors that exist in the network layer.
An Analogy: Talking on a Cell Phone
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol unlike UDP. The connection orientedness is like a phone call because a connection is established before communication takes place, and then we hang up. Some ...