Transmission Control Protocol Packets

TCP (RFC793[78]), the header of which is shown in Figure 9-6, aims to provide a reliable, stream-based method for establishing a meaningful conversation between two systems. TCP is more suitable than UDP for use with all applications except those that must exchange more than simple, short messages and single shouts.

Although technically implemented using separate IP datagrams traversing the network, the established TCP connection—a virtual channel, from an application’s perspective—allows for a communications mode much like a regular phone conversation. Unlike with UDP traffic, when using TCP you can be sure that the recipient always receives the data as sent (or that, if error recovery is not possible, the ...

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