TCP Features

Features of TCP

i) Connection-Oriented protocol:

TCP establishes a reliable connection between sender and receiver before transmitting data packets. It uses a three-way handshake to make a secure connection.

Three-way handshake process: 

Steps in three-way handshake:

• SYN - Source sends an SYN (synchronization) segment to the destination. It indicates that the source wants to establish a connection with the destination.

• SYN-ACK: Destination sends back SYN/ACK to the sender to convey that it has received SYN and is ready to establish the connection.
   
• ACK: After getting the SYN-ACK, the destination sends ACK, indicating the source received the SYN-ACK. Now the session is fully reliable.
   

After, a three-way handshake source or destination can send the data. 

ii) Reliable:  

TCP provides reliable data transfer and ensures that all the data packets are delivered to the receiver without any loss. 

It uses the sequence number for all the sent packets. These numbers not only help to reorder the received packets but also help to find whether all packets are received.  

It also uses an Acknowledgment system. The receiver sends these acknowledgments to the sender to notify them about the received or lost packets.

iii) Congestion control:

TCP uses congestion control to prevent network congestion by reducing the transmission rate when the network is congested. It uses various algorithms to control congestion, such as Slow Start, Fast Retransmit, and Collision Avoidance.

You can read related articles such as Congestion Control in Computer Networks here.

iv) Flow control:

Windowing is the process of controlling the flow of segments. This process ensures that one host does not flood other hosts by sending too many packets or segments.

The receiver sends a window size to the sender, indicating how much data it can accept at a given time. The sender adjusts its transmission rate based on the receiver's window size.

v) Full Duplex:

TCP allows full duplex communication, which means data can be transmitted simultaneously from both sides. Each connection has a separate window for sending and receiving data to ensure this feature.

vi) Error checking and recovery: 

TCP uses checksums to detect errors in data. Every segment contains a checksum field required to find a corrupted segment.

If a segment is corrupted, the destination discards it and considers it lost; a request to resend it is issued to the sender.

vii) Segmentation and Reassembly:

The data packets can be large in size, so TCP breaks the data into small packets(chunks) before sending them over the network. The receiver can reassemble the segments from the data stream.
 

Must Read Subnetting in Computer Networks

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between flow control and error control?

Flow control manages the data transmission pace and prevents one host from overflowing the other host by sending many data packets. Error control detects and corrects errors in data transmission to ensure error-free delivery to the destination.

Why is TCP more reliable than UDP?

TCP can detect lost data or errors in any data using the acknowledgment sent by the receiver. In contrast, UDP cannot notify whether the transmitted packet is received.

What is TCP, and what is its main purpose?

TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol, a transfer layer protocol that ensures reliable data packet transmission from source to destination. Its purpose is to provide a connection-oriented, reliable, and error-checked communication service over the Internet.

Conclusion

Congratulations, You have learned about the features of TCP in a very detailed manner. 

We also added some FAQs related to TCP and its features. 

You should read more articles related to TCP and its related networking topics.

1. TCP/IP Model
    
2. TCP vs. UDP
    
3. OSI vs. TCP/IP Model
    

I hope you have enjoyed the article and got some insight into this topic of TCP features. You can refer to Guided Path for Computer Networks to learn more about computer networking topics.

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Happy Learning!!