Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a set of rules that govern how data is transmitted over a network. It is one of the core protocols of the internet and is used by many other networking protocols.
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, which means that it establishes a virtual connection between two devices before transmitting data. This connection is maintained throughout the duration of the data transfer, and the devices can exchange data in both directions.
TCP is designed to provide reliable and error-free data transfer between devices. To achieve this, it uses a number of mechanisms such as error checking, retransmission of lost data, and flow control.
When transmitting data, TCP breaks the data into smaller chunks called "segments" and adds a header to each segment. The header contains information such as the source and destination IP addresses, the sequence number of the segment, and other control information. The segments are then transmitted over the network and reassembled by the recipient.
TCP is commonly used in combination with the Internet Protocol (IP), which is responsible for routing the segments to their destination. Together, TCP and IP are known as the TCP/IP protocol suite.
TCP is widely used in many applications that require reliable data transfer, such as email, web browsing, and file transfer. It is also used as the basis for many other protocols, such as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).
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