The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol. Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP
What is error control In Tcp?
Error control in data link layer is the process of detecting and correcting data frames that have been corrupted or lost during transmission. In case of lost or corrupted frames, the receiver does not receive the correct data-frame and sender is ignorant about the loss.
What are the key functions of error control techniques?
Error Control is a technique of error detection and retransmission. Stop-and-wait ARQ is a technique used to retransmit the data in case of damaged or lost frames. This technique works on the principle that the sender will not transmit the next frame until it receives the acknowledgement of the last transmitted frame.
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TCP vs. IP: What is the Difference?
TCP and IP are separate protocols that work together to ensure data is delivered to its intended destination within a network. IP obtains and defines the address—the IP address—of the application or device the data must be sent to. TCP is then responsible for transporting data and ensuring it gets delivered to the destination application or device that IP has defined.
In other words, the IP address is akin to a phone number assigned to a smartphone. TCP is the computer networking version of the technology used to make the smartphone ring and enable its user to talk to the person who called them. The two protocols are frequently used together and rely on each other for data to have a destination and safely reach it, which is why the process is regularly referred to as TCP/IP.
How Does TCP/IP Work?
The TCP/IP model was developed by the United States Department of Defense to enable the accurate and correct transmission of data between devices. It breaks messages into packets to avoid having to resend the entire message in case it encounters a problem during transmission. Packets are reassembled once they reach their destination. Every packet can take a different route between the source and the destination computer, depending on whether the original route used becomes congested or unavailable.
TCP/IP divides communication tasks into layers that keep the process standardized, without hardware and software providers having to try and manage it themselves. The data packets must pass through four layers before they are received by the destination device, then TCP/IP goes through the layers in reverse order to put the message back into its original format.
As a connection-oriented protocol, TCP establishes and maintains a connection between applications or devices until they finish exchanging data. It determines how the original message should be broken into packets, numbers and reassembles the packets, and sends them on to other devices on the network, such as routers, security gateways, and switches, then on to their destination. TCP also sends and receives packets from the network layer, handles the transmission of any dropped packets, manages flow control, and ensures all packets reach their destination.
A good example of how this works in practice is when an email is sent using SMTP from an email server. The TCP layer in the server divides the message into packets, numbers them, and forwards them to the IP layer, which then transports each packet to the destination email server. When packets arrive, they are handed back to the TCP layer to be reassembled into the original message format and handed back to the email server, which delivers the message to a user’s email inbox.
TCP/IP uses a three-way handshake to establish a connection between a device and a server, which ensures multiple TCP socket connections can be transferred in both directions concurrently. Both the device and server must synchronize and acknowledge packets before communication begins, then they can negotiate, separate, and transfer TCP socket connections.
The 4 Layers of the TCP/IP Model
The TCP/IP model defines how devices should transmit data between them and enables communication over networks and large distances. The model represents how data is exchanged and organized over networks. It is split into four layers, which set the standards for data exchange and represent how data is handled and packaged when being delivered between applications, devices, and servers.
The four layers of the TCP/IP model are as follows:
- Datalink layer: The datalink layer defines how data should be sent, handles the physical act of sending and receiving data, and is responsible for transmitting data between applications or devices on a network. This includes defining how data should be signaled by hardware and other transmission devices on a network, such as a computer’s device driver, an Ethernet cable, a network interface card (NIC), or a wireless network. It is also referred to as the link layer, network access layer, network interface layer, or physical layer and is the combination of the physical and data link layers of the Open systems Interconnections (OS)Model which standardizes communications functions on computing and telecommunications systems.
- Internet layer: The internet layer is responsible for sending packets from a network and controlling their movement across a network to ensure they reach their destination. It provides the functions and procedures for transferring data sequences between applications and devices across networks.
- Transport layer: The transport layer is responsible for providing a solid and reliable data connection between the original application or device and its intended destination. This is the level where data is divided into packets and numbered to create a sequence. The transport layer then determines how much data must be sent, where it should be sent to, and at what rate. It ensures that data packets are sent without errors and in sequence and obtains the acknowledgment that the destination device has received the data packets.
- Application layer: The application layer refers to programs that need TCP/IP to help them communicate with each other. This is the level that users typically interact with, such as email systems and messaging platforms. It combines the session, presentation, and application layers of the OSI model.
TCP ERROR CONTROL PROCEDURES
TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or duplicated.
TCP provides reliability using error control. Error control includes mechanisms for detecting corrupted segments, lost segments, out-of-order segments, and duplicated segments. Error control also includes a mechanism for correcting errors after they are detected. Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out.
1. Checksum:
Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, it is discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost. TCP uses a 16-bit checksum that is mandatory in every segment.
2. Acknowledgment:
TCP uses acknowledgments to confirm the receipt of data segments. Control segments that carry no data but consume a sequence number are also acknowledged. ACK segments are never acknowledged.
3. Retransmission:
The heart of the error control mechanism is the retransmission of segments. When a segment is corrupted, lost, or delayed, it is retransmitted. A segment is retransmitted on two occasions: when a retransmission timer expires or when the sender receives three duplicate ACKs.
Retransmission After RTO:
A recent implementation of TCP maintains one retransmission time-out (RTO) timer for all outstanding (sent, but not acknowledged) segments.
When the timer matures, the earliest outstanding segment is retransmitted even though lack of a received ACK can be due to a delayed segment, a delayed ACK, or a lost acknowledgment. Note that no time-out timer is set for a segment that carries only an acknowledgment. The value of RTO is dynamic in TCP and is updated based on the round-trip time (RTT) of segments. An RTI is the time needed for a segment to reach a destination and for an acknowledgment to be received.
Retransmission After Three Duplicate ACK Segments:
The previous rule about retransmission of a segment is sufficient if the value of RTO is not very large. Sometimes, however, one segment is lost and the receiver receives so many out-of-order segments that they cannot be saved (limited buffer size). To avoid this situation, most implementations today follow the three-duplicate-ACKs rule and retransmit the missing segment immediately. This feature is referred to as fast retransmission.
Out-of-Order Segments:
When a segment is delayed, lost, or discarded, the segments following that segment arrive out of order. The out-of-order segments are stored temporarily and flag them as out-of-order segments until the missing segment arrives. Note, however, that the out-of-order segments are not delivered to the process. TCP guarantees that data are delivered to the process in order.
Lost Segment:
A lost segment and a corrupted segment are treated the same way by the receiver. A lost segment is discarded somewhere in the network; a corrupted segment is discarded by the receiver itself. Both are considered lost.
Fast Retransmission:
In this example, If RTO has a higher value and receiver receives the fourth, fifth, and sixth segments, it triggers an acknowledgment. The sender receives four acknowledgments with the same value (three duplicates). Although the timer for segment 3 has not matured yet, the fast transmission requires that segment 3, the segment that is expected by all these acknowledgments, be resent immediately.
Note that only one segment is retransmitted although four segments are not acknowledged. When the sender receives the retransmitted ACK, it knows that the four segments are safe and sound because acknowledgment is cumulative.
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