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TCP Functions: What TCP Does
(Page 1 of 2)
We have now seen where
TCP comes from and the standards that describe it.
As I said in the introduction to this section, TCP is a complicated
protocol, so it will take some time to explain how it works. The most
logical first bite in consuming this particular elephant
is to look at exactly what TCP does. From there, we can describe its
characteristics and then get into the details of its operation.
Functions Performed By TCP
Despite the complexity of TCP, its
basic operation can be reasonably simplified by describing its primary
functions. The following are what I believe to be the five main tasks
that TCP performs:
- Addressing/Multiplexing: TCP is used by
many different applications for their transport protocol. Therefore,
like its simpler sibling UDP, an important job for TCP is multiplexing
the data received from these different processes so they can be sent
out using the underlying network-layer protocol. At the same time, these
higher-layer application processes are identified using TCP ports. The
section on TCP/IP transport layer addressing
contains a great deal of detail on how this addressing works.
- Connection Establishment, Management and Termination:
TCP provides a set of procedures that devices follow to negotiate
and establish a TCP connection over which
data can travel. Once opened, TCP includes logic for managing connections
and handling problems that may result with them. When a device is done
with a TCP connection, a special process is followed to terminate it.
- Data Handling and Packaging: TCP defines
a mechanism by which applications are able to send data to it from higher
layers. This data is then packaged
into messages to be sent to the destination
TCP software. The destination software unpackages the data and gives
it to the application on the destination machine.
- Data Transfer: Conceptually, the TCP implementation
on a transmitting device is responsible for the transfer of packaged
data to the TCP process on the other device. Following the principle
of layering, this is done by having the TCP software on the sending
machine pass the data packets to the underlying network-layer protocol,
which again normally means IP.
- Providing Reliability and Transmission Quality
Services: TCP includes a
set of services and features that allow
an application to consider the sending of data using the protocol to
be reliable. This means that normally, a TCP application
doesn't have to worry about data being sent and never showing up, or
arriving in the wrong order. It also means other common problems that
might arise if IP were used directly are avoided.
- Providing Flow Control and Congestion Avoidance
Features: TCP allows the flow of data between two devices to be
controlled and managed. It also includes features to deal with congestion
that may be experienced during communication between devices.
Clearly, TCP is responsible for a
fairly significant number of key functions. This list may not seem that
impressive. The reason is that this is just a high-level look at the
protocol, and these functions are summarized in the list above; when
we look at them in detail we will see that each one actually involves
a rather significant amount of work for TCP to do.
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Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005
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