Principal protocol used to stream data across an IP network
Transmission Control Protocol
Protocol stack
Abbreviation
TCP
Developer(s)
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn
Introduction
1974; 50 years ago (1974)
Based on
Transmission Control Program
OSI layer
Transport layer (4)
RFC(s)
RFC 9293
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 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 (IP). Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of octets (bytes) between applications running on hosts communicating via an IP network. Major internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email, remote administration, and file transfer rely on TCP, which is part of the Transport layer of the TCP/IP suite. SSL/TLS often runs on top of TCP.
TCP is connection-oriented, and a connection between client and server is established before data can be sent. The server must be listening (passive open) for connection requests from clients before a connection is established. Three-way handshake (active open), retransmission, and error detection adds to reliability but lengthens latency. Applications that do not require reliable data stream service may use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) instead, which provides a connectionless datagram service that prioritizes time over reliability. TCP employs network congestion avoidance. However, there are vulnerabilities in TCP, including denial of service, connection hijacking, TCP veto, and reset attack.
Internet protocol suite
Application layer
BGP
DHCP (v6)
DNS
FTP
HTTP (HTTP/3)
HTTPS
IMAP
IRC
LDAP
MGCP
MQTT
NNTP
NTP
OSPF
POP
PTP
ONC/RPC
RTP
RTSP
RIP
SIP
SMTP
SNMP
SSH
Telnet
TLS/SSL
XMPP
more...
Transport layer
TCP
UDP
DCCP
SCTP
RSVP
QUIC
more...
Internet layer
IP
v4
v6
ICMP (v6)
NDP
ECN
IGMP
IPsec
more...
Link layer
ARP
Tunnels
PPP
MAC
more...
v
t
e
and 26 Related for: Transmission Control Protocol information
The TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation...
Stream ControlTransmissionProtocol (SCTP) is a computer networking communications protocol in the transport layer of the Internet protocol suite. Originally...
connection-oriented service that became the basis for the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP). The Internet protocol suite is therefore often referred to as TCP/IP...
foundational protocols in the suite are the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and the Internet Protocol (IP). Early...
Datagram Protocol (UDP), the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP), and the Stream ControlTransmissionProtocol (SCTP). For secure transmissions of SIP messages...
a server that supports the Daytime Protocol on either TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 13. The server returns an...
communication in 1969 was the 1822 protocol, written by Bob Kahn, which defined the transmission of messages to an IMP. The Network Control Program (NCP) for the ARPANET...
Control Protocol (TCP), but does not provide reliable in-order delivery. Sequenced delivery within multiple streams as in the Stream ControlTransmission Protocol...
to a host that supports the Discard Protocol on either TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port number 9. The data sent...
transport protocol of the Internet protocol suite is the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP). It is used for connection-oriented transmissions, whereas...
Notification (ECN) is an extension to the Internet Protocol and to the TransmissionControlProtocol and is defined in RFC 3168 (2001). ECN allows end-to-end...
level, an application may instead use TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or Stream ControlTransmissionProtocol (SCTP) which are designed for this purpose...
date and time. The Time Protocol may be implemented over the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). A host connects to...
a server that supports the Echo Protocol using the TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) on the well-known port number...
controlprotocol architecture, in that is decomposes the function of media conversion in telecommunication for transmission via an Internet Protocol network...
profiles. The telephone controlprotocol specification is not called TCP, to avoid confusion with transmissioncontrolprotocol (TCP) used for Internet...
poor latency and other congestion control problems found in conventional BitTorrent over TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP), while providing reliable,...
transmission medium. The MAC sublayer and the logical link control (LLC) sublayer together make up the data link layer. The LLC provides flow control...
(IETF) Multipath TCP working group, that aims at allowing a TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) connection to use multiple paths to maximize throughput...
one-to-many transmissions. Internet Protocol unicast delivery methods such as TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) are typically...
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message...
losses involving other streams. In contrast, HTTP/2 hosted on TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) can suffer head-of-line-blocking delays of all multiplexed...
the Character Generator Protocol on either TransmissionControlProtocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port number 19. Upon opening a TCP connection...
The RTP ControlProtocol (RTCP) is a binary-encoded out-of-band signaling protocol that functions alongside the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). Its...