How Does TCP Work?
The transmission control protocol (TCP) does one job very well — it creates an abstraction that makes an unreliable channel look like a reliable network. For applications built over an unreliable network like the Internet, TCP is a godsend that hides a lot of the inherent complexity in building networked applications. A laundry list of TCP features that application developers rely on every day includes: retransmission of lost data, in-order data delivery, data integrity, and congestion control. This article provides an introduction TCP, describing the structure of TCP segments, how TCP connections are established, and the algorithms that govern the flow of data between senders and receivers. ...