What is TCP? (Cont.)

• TCP operates over a wide range of network and application characteristics

• • > 6 orders of magnitude of bandwidth
  • Interactive data flow (Telnet, SSH)
  • Bulk data flow (FTP, HTTP)

• It also performs a rather complex set of congestion control and avoidance algorithms

• • Prevents TCP from flooding the network with too much data
  • • Dynamic sliding window flow control
    • A TCP sender will “back off” when a loss in detected
  • These algorithms have come a long way and they continue to evolve