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Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a method used along with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet. For example when a HTML file is sent to you from a web server the TCP program layer in that server divides the file into one or more packets, numbers the packets and then forward them individually to the IP program layer. Although each packet has the same IP address it may get routed differently through the network.
At the other end, the TCP program in your computer reassembles the individual packets and waits until they have arrived to forward them to you as a single file. TCP is known as a connection-oriented protocol in that a connection is established and maintained until such time as the message or messages to be exchanged have been fully exchanged. TCP is responsible for ensuring that a file is divided into the packets that IP manages and for reassembling the packets back into the complete message at the other end. | ||
