Transmission Control Protocol

What Does Transmission Control Protocol Mean?

Transmission control protocol (TCP) is a network communication protocol designed to send data packets over the Internet.

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TCP is a transport layer protocol in the OSI layer and is used to create a connection between remote computers by transporting and ensuring the delivery of messages over supporting networks and the Internet.

Techopedia Explains Transmission Control Protocol

Transmission Control Protocol is one of the most used protocols in digital network communications and is part of the Internet protocol suite, commonly known as the TCP/IP suite. Primarily, TCP ensures end-to-end delivery of data between distinct nodes. TCP works in collaboration with Internet Protocol, which defines the logical location of the remote node, whereas TCP transports and ensures that the data is delivered to the correct destination.

Before transmitting data, TCP creates a connection between the source and destination node and keeps it live until the communication is active. TCP breaks large data into smaller packets and also ensures that the data integrity is intact once it is reassembled at the destination node.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…