Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
This section explores TCP as a reliable, connection-oriented transport protocol. Topics include connection establishment and termination, sequencing and acknowledgments, sliding-window flow control, retransmission, error control, and the mechanisms TCP uses to support ordered and dependable byte-stream delivery.
Learning Goals
- Explain the connection-oriented nature of TCP and outline the steps in connection establishment and connection termination.
- Identify the major TCP header fields and describe their roles in sequencing, acknowledgment, control, and reliability.
- Analyze how TCP provides reliable ordered delivery using sequence numbers, acknowledgments, timers, and retransmissions.
- Describe the sliding-window mechanism and explain how TCP performs flow control between sender and receiver.
- Evaluate TCP suitability for applications requiring reliable byte-stream communication, such as web transfer, email, and file transfer.