CS2005 Networks and Operating Systems - Transport Layer II

These flashcards cover key vocabulary terms and definitions related to the transport layer protocols, specifically focusing on TCP and its attributes.

Connection-oriented transport

A transport service where communication requires a handshake to establish a connection before data transfer.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

A connection-oriented transport protocol that provides reliable data transfer and flow control.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

A connectionless transport protocol that allows applications to send messages without establishing a connection.

Three-way handshake

The process of establishing a TCP connection involving a client sending a SYN, the server responding with SYN-ACK, and the client sending ACK.

Reliable data transfer

The ability of TCP to ensure that data is delivered without errors, duplicates, or gaps and in the correct order.

Flow control

A mechanism to ensure that a sender does not overwhelm a receiver with too much data at once.

Congestion control

TCP's method of managing data transmission rates based on network traffic conditions.

Segment structure

The format of a TCP segment, which includes source/destination port, sequence number, acknowledgment number, and various flags.

Maximum Segment Size (MSS)

The largest amount of data that TCP can send in a single segment.

Acknowledgment number

The sequence number of the next byte that the sender expects to receive, used in confirming successful receipt of data.

Receive window

A TCP variable that indicates how much data the receiver can accept at any given time.

Duplicate ACK

An acknowledgment sent by the receiver indicating that a specific segment has been received, and signaling possible packet loss.

Timeout

A condition in TCP where a segment has not been acknowledged within a given time frame, prompting retransmission.

Urgent data

Data marked by the sender as critical, requiring immediate processing by the receiving application.