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the address of the server
the port chosen by the client
the port chosen by the server
the `sequence number` (32 bits), `acknowledgment number` (32 bits) and `window` (16 bits) fields are used to provide a reliable data transfer, using a window-based protocol. In a TCP bytestream, each byte of the stream consumes one sequence number. Their usage is described in more detail in section :ref:`TCPReliable`
the `Urgent pointer` is used to indicate that some data should be considered as urgent in a TCP bytestream. However, it is rarely used in practice and will not be described here. Additional details about the utilization of this pointer may be found in :rfc:`793`, :rfc:`1122` or [Stevens1994]_
the flags field contains a set of bit flags that indicate how a segment should be interpreted by the TCP entity receiving it :
the `SYN` flag is used during connection establishment
the `FIN` flag is used during connection release
the `RST` is used in case of problems or when an invalid segment has been received
when the `ACK` flag is set, it indicates that the `acknowledgment` field contains a valid number. Otherwise, the content of the `acknowledgment` field must be ignored by the receiver
the `URG` flag is used together with the `Urgent pointer`
the `PSH` flag is used as a notification from the sender to indicate to the receiver that it should pass all the data it has received to the receiving process. However, in practice TCP implementations do not allow TCP users to indicate when the `PSH` flag should be set.
the `checksum` field contains the value of the Internet checksum computed over the entire TCP segment and a pseudo-header as with UDP
the `Reserved` field was initially reserved for future utilization. It is now used by :rfc:`3168`.
the `TCP Header Length` (THL) or `Data Offset` field is a four bits field that indicates the size of the TCP header in 32 bit words. The maximum size of the TCP header is thus 64 bytes.
the `Optional header extension` is used to add optional information to the TCP header. Thanks to this header extension, it is possible to add new fields to the TCP header that were not planned in the original specification. This allowed TCP to evolve since the early eighties. The details of the TCP header extension are explained in sections :ref:`TCPOpen` and :ref:`TCPReliable`.
The rest of this section is organized as follows. We first explain the establishment and the release of a TCP connection, then we discuss the mechanisms that are used by TCP to provide a reliable bytestream service. We end the section with a discussion of network congestion and explain the mechanisms that TCP uses to avoid congestion collapse.
TCP connection establishment
A TCP connection is established by using a three-way handshake. The connection establishment phase uses the `sequence number`, the `acknowledgment number` and the `SYN` flag. When a TCP connection is established, the two communicating hosts negotiate the initial sequence number to be used in both directions of the connection. For this, each TCP entity maintains a 32 bits counter, which is supposed to be incremented by one at least every 4 microseconds and after each connection establishment [#ftcpclock]_. When a client host wants to open a TCP connection with a server host, it creates a TCP segment with :
the `SYN` flag set
the `sequence number` set to the current value of the 32 bits counter of the client host's TCP entity
Upon reception of this segment (which is often called a `SYN segment`), the server host replies with a segment containing :
the `sequence number` set to the current value of the 32 bits counter of the server host's TCP entity
the `ACK` flag set
the `acknowledgment number` set to the `sequence number` of the received `SYN` segment incremented by 1 :math:`\pmod{2^{32}}`. When a TCP entity sends a segment having `x+1` as acknowledgment number, this indicates that it has received all data up to and including sequence number `x` and that it is expecting data having sequence number `x+1`. As the `SYN` flag was set in a segment having sequence number `x`, this implies that setting the `SYN` flag in a segment consumes one sequence number.
This segment is often called a `SYN+ACK` segment. The acknowledgment confirms to the client that the server has correctly received the `SYN` segment. The `sequence number` of the `SYN+ACK` segment is used by the server host to verify that the `client` has received the segment. Upon reception of the `SYN+ACK` segment, the client host replies with a segment containing :
the `acknowledgment number` set to the `sequence number` of the received `SYN+ACK` segment incremented by 1 :math:`\pmod{2^{32}}`
At this point, the TCP connection is open and both the client and the server are allowed to send TCP segments containing data. This is illustrated in the figure below.
Establishment of a TCP connection
In the figure above, the connection is considered to be established by the client once it has received the `SYN+ACK` segment, while the server considers the connection to be established upon reception of the `ACK` segment. The first data segment sent by the client (server) has its `sequence number` set to `x+1` (resp. `y+1`).
Computing TCP's initial sequence number

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read-only
Source string location
../../protocols/tcp.rst:58
String age
3 years ago
Source string age
3 years ago
Translation file
locale/pot/protocols/tcp.pot, string 30