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As explained earlier, the TCP Timestamp option :rfc:`1323` prevents ambiguities while collecting round-trip-time measurements. It plays another very important role in today's high-bandwidth networks. Since TCP uses 32 bits long sequence numbers, the sequence numbers wrap after the transmission of 4 GBytes of data. With 10 Gbps and soon 100 Gbps interfaces, TCP only needs to transmit during a few seconds before reusing the same sequence number. Given that the Maximum Segment Lifetime is still 2 minutes, several packets, belonging to the same TCP connection could use the same sequence number. If one of these packets is severely delayed through the network, it could reappear at the same time as a packet with the same TCP sequence number. To prevent this problem, most modern TCP implementations associate a TCP timestamp option to each segment on transmission. When a TCP stack receives a TCP segment, it checks that its TCP timestamp is valid and if not the segment is discarded :rfc:`7323`.
TCP connection release
TCP, like most connection-oriented transport protocols, supports two types of connection releases :
graceful connection release, where each TCP user can release its own direction of data transfer after having transmitted all data
abrupt connection release, where either one user closes both directions of data transfer or one TCP entity is forced to close the connection (e.g., because the remote host does not reply anymore or due to lack of resources)
The abrupt connection release mechanism is very simple and relies on a single segment having the `RST` bit set. A TCP segment containing the `RST` bit can be sent for the following reasons :
a non-`SYN` segment was received for a non-existing TCP connection :rfc:`793`
by extension, some implementations respond with an `RST` segment to a segment that is received on an existing connection but with an invalid header :rfc:`3360`. This causes the corresponding connection to be closed and has caused security attacks :rfc:`4953`
by extension, some implementations send an `RST` segment when they need to close an existing TCP connection (e.g., because there are not enough resources to support this connection or because the remote host is considered to be unreachable). Measurements have shown that this usage of TCP `RST` is widespread [AW05]_
When an `RST` segment is sent by a TCP entity, it should contain the current value of the `sequence number` for the connection (or 0 if it does not belong to any existing connection) and the `acknowledgment number` should be set to the next expected in-sequence `sequence number` on this connection.
TCP `RST` wars
The designers of TCP implementations should ensure that two TCP entities never enter a TCP `RST` war where host `A` is sending a `RST` segment in response to a previous `RST` segment that was sent by host `B` in response to a TCP `RST` segment sent by host `A` ... To avoid such an infinite exchange of `RST` segments that do not carry data, a TCP entity is *never* allowed to send a `RST` segment in response to another `RST` segment.
The normal way of terminating a TCP connection is by using the graceful TCP connection release. This mechanism uses the `FIN` flag of the TCP header and allows each host to release its own direction of data transfer. As for the `SYN` flag, the utilization of the `FIN` flag in the TCP header consumes one sequence number. The figure :ref:`fig-tcprelease` shows the part of the TCP FSM used when a TCP connection is released.
Starting from the `Established` state, there are two main paths through this FSM.
The first path is when the host receives a segment with sequence number `x` and the `FIN` flag set. The utilization of the `FIN` flag indicates that the byte before `sequence number` `x` was the last byte of the byte stream sent by the remote host. Once all of the data has been delivered to the user, the TCP entity sends an `ACK` segment whose `ack` field is set to :math:`(x+1) \pmod{2^{32}}` to acknowledge the `FIN` segment. The `FIN` segment is subject to the same retransmission mechanisms as a normal TCP segment. In particular, its transmission is protected by the retransmission timer. At this point, the TCP connection enters the `CLOSE\_WAIT` state. In this state, the host can still send data to the remote host. Once all its data have been sent, it sends a `FIN` segment and enter the `LAST\_ACK` state. In this state, the TCP entity waits for the acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment. It may still retransmit unacknowledged data segments, e.g., if the retransmission timer expires. Upon reception of the acknowledgment for the `FIN` segment, the TCP connection is completely closed and its :term:`TCB` can be discarded.
The second path is when the host has transmitted all data. Assume that the last transmitted sequence number is `z`. Then, the host sends a `FIN` segment with sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}` and enters the `FIN_WAIT1` state. In this state, it can retransmit unacknowledged segments but cannot send new data segments. It waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment (i.e. sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}`), but may receive a `FIN` segment sent by the remote host. In the first case, the TCP connection enters the `FIN\_WAIT2` state. In this state, new data segments from the remote host are still accepted until the reception of the `FIN` segment. The acknowledgment for this `FIN` segment is sent once all data received before the `FIN` segment have been delivered to the user and the connection enters the `TIME\_WAIT` state. In the second case, a `FIN` segment is received and the connection enters the `Closing` state once all data received from the remote host have been delivered to the user. In this state, no new data segments can be sent and the host waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment before entering the `TIME\_WAIT` state.
The `TIME\_WAIT` state is different from the other states of the TCP FSM. A TCP entity enters this state after having sent the last `ACK` segment on a TCP connection. This segment indicates to the remote host that all the data that it has sent have been correctly received and that it can safely release the TCP connection and discard the corresponding :term:`TCB`. After having sent the last `ACK` segment, a TCP connection enters the `TIME\_WAIT` and remains in this state for :math:`2*MSL` seconds. During this period, the TCB of the connection is maintained. This ensures that the TCP entity that sent the last `ACK` maintains enough state to be able to retransmit this segment if this `ACK` segment is lost and the remote host retransmits its last `FIN` segment or another one. The delay of :math:`2*MSL` seconds ensures that any duplicate segments on the connection would be handled correctly without causing the transmission of an `RST` segment. Without the `TIME\_WAIT` state and the :math:`2*MSL` seconds delay, the connection release would not be graceful when the last `ACK` segment is lost.
TIME\_WAIT on busy TCP servers
The :math:`2*MSL` seconds delay in the `TIME\_WAIT` state is an important operational problem on servers having thousands of simultaneously opened TCP connections [FTY99]_. Consider for example a busy web server that processes 10.000 TCP connections every second. If each of these connections remains in the `TIME\_WAIT` state for 4 minutes, this implies that the server would have to maintain more than 2 million TCBs at any time. For this reason, some TCP implementations prefer to perform an abrupt connection release by sending a `RST` segment to close the connection [AW05]_ and immediately discard the corresponding :term:`TCB`. However, if the `RST` segment is lost, the remote host continues to maintain a :term:`TCB` for a connection that no longer exists. This optimization reduces the number of TCBs maintained by the host sending the `RST` segment but at the potential cost of increased processing on the remote host when the `RST` segment is lost.
Footnotes
A detailed presentation of all standardization documents concerning TCP may be found in :rfc:`4614`
Several researchers have analyzed the utilization of TCP and UDP in the global Internet. Most of these studies have been performed by collecting all the packets transmitted over a given link during a period of a few hours or days and then analyzing their headers to infer the transport protocol used, the type of application, ... Recent studies include http://www.caida.org/research/traffic-analysis/tcpudpratio/, https://research.sprintlabs.com/packstat/packetoverview.php or http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog43/presentations/Labovitz_internetstats_N43.pdf
This 32 bits counter was specified in :rfc:`793`. A 32 bits counter that is incremented every 4 microseconds wraps in about 4.5 hours. This period is much larger than the Maximum Segment Lifetime that is fixed at 2 minutes in the Internet (:rfc:`791`, :rfc:`1122`).
On many departmental networks containing Unix workstations, it was common to allow users on one of the hosts to use ``rlogin`` :rfc:`1258` to run commands on any of the workstations of the network without giving any password. In this case, the remote workstation "authenticated" the client host based on its IP address. This was a bad practice from a security viewpoint.
Of course, such a simultaneous TCP establishment can only occur if the source port chosen by the client is equal to the destination port chosen by the server. This may happen when a host can serve both as a client as a server or in peer-to-peer applications when the communicating hosts do not use ephemeral port numbers.
Sending a packet with a different source IP address than the address allocated to the host is called sending a :term:`spoofed packet`.
The full list of all TCP options may be found at http://www.iana.org/assignments/tcp-parameters/
In practice, only the `SYN` segment do not have their `ACK` flag set.
A complete TCP implementation contains additional information in its TCB, notably to support the `urgent` pointer. However, this part of TCP is not discussed in this book. Refer to :rfc:`793` and :rfc:`2140` for more details about the TCB.
This TCP segment is then placed in an IP header. We describe IPv6 in the next chapter. The minimum size of the IPv6 (resp. IPv4) header is 40 bytes (resp. 20 bytes).
A precise estimation of the maximum bandwidth that can be achieved by a TCP connection should take into account the overhead of the TCP and IP headers as well.

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cnp3-ebook / protocols/tcp — English

The second path is when the host has transmitted all data. Assume that the last transmitted sequence number is `z`. Then, the host sends a `FIN` segment with sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}` and enters the `FIN_WAIT1` state. In this state, it can retransmit unacknowledged segments but cannot send new data segments. It waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment (i.e. sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}`), but may receive a `FIN` segment sent by the remote host. In the first case, the TCP connection enters the `FIN\_WAIT2` state. In this state, new data segments from the remote host are still accepted until the reception of the `FIN` segment. The acknowledgment for this `FIN` segment is sent once all data received before the `FIN` segment have been delivered to the user and the connection enters the `TIME\_WAIT` state. In the second case, a `FIN` segment is received and the connection enters the `Closing` state once all data received from the remote host have been delivered to the user. In this state, no new data segments can be sent and the host waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment before entering the `TIME\_WAIT` state.
The second path is when the host has transmitted all data. Assume that the last transmitted sequence number is `z`. Then, the host sends a `FIN` segment with sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}` and enters the `FIN_WAIT1` state. In this state, it can retransmit unacknowledged segments but cannot send new data segments. It waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment (i.e. sequence number :math:`(z+1) \pmod{2^{32}}`), but may receive a `FIN` segment sent by the remote host. In the first case, the TCP connection enters the `FIN\_WAIT2` state. In this state, new data segments from the remote host are still accepted until the reception of the `FIN` segment. The acknowledgment for this `FIN` segment is sent once all data received before the `FIN` segment have been delivered to the user and the connection enters the `TIME\_WAIT` state. In the second case, a `FIN` segment is received and the connection enters the `Closing` state once all data received from the remote host have been delivered to the user. In this state, no new data segments can be sent and the host waits for an acknowledgment of its `FIN` segment before entering the `TIME\_WAIT` state.
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locale/pot/protocols/tcp.pot, string 179