Transmission control Protocol (TCP)

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) –RFC 793

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is intended for use as a highly reliable host-to-host protocol between hosts in packet-switched computer communication networks, and in interconnected systems of such networks.
Transmission Control protocol (TCP) takes large blocks of information from an application and breaks them into segments. It numbers and sequences each segment so that the destination’s TCP protocol can put the segments back into the order the application intended. After these segments are sent, TCP waits for an acknowledgement of the receiving end’s TCP virtual circuit session, retransmitting those that are not acknowledged.
TCP is a full-duplex, connection oriented, reliable, and accurate protocol, but establishing all these terms and conditions, in addition to error checking , is no small task. TCP is very complicated and, not surprisingly, costly in terms of network overhead.
TCP is a connection-oriented, end-to-end reliable protocol designed to fit into a layered hierarchy of protocols which support multi-network applications. The TCP provides for reliable inter-process communication between pairs of processes in host computers attached to distinct but interconnected computer communication networks. Very few assumptions are made as to the reliability of the communication protocols below the TCP layer.
The TCP is intended to provide a reliable process-to-process communication service in a multi network environment. The TCP is intended to be a host-to-host protocol in common use in multiple networks. The primary purpose of the TCP is to provide reliable, securable logical circuit or connection service between pairs of processes. The TCP is able to transfer a continuous stream of octets in each direction between its users by packaging some number of octets into segments for transmission through the internet system. The TCP must recover from data that is damaged, lost, duplicated, or delivered out of order by the internet communication system. TCP provides a means for the receiver to govern the amount of data sent by the sender. To allow for many processes within a single Host to use TCP communication facilities simultaneously, the TCP provides a set of addresses or ports within each host. The reliability and flow control mechanisms described above require that TCPs initialize and maintain certain status information for each data stream.

Reference:
Information science Institute. (1981). Transmission Control protocol. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0793.txt?number=793