4 TCP windowing and flow control
- Although not shown in the figure describing a TCP three-way handshake, both the client and the server will also have exchanged window size information during this process to set the maximum amount of data that can be sent without acknowledgement.
- A simplified windowing process is illustrated in the figure below. In a real TCP exchange, both the client and server would send data and windowing information, but for clarity only the server window size is shown.
TCP windowing and flow control process
- In the figure above, the TCP three-way handshake has been completed and the server has informed the client that it will only accept 2000 bytes of data prior to sending an acknowledgement.
- The client sets its initial sequence number to ‘1’ and starts to send data segments to the server. The first segment contains 1000 bytes and is sent with a sequence number of ‘1’. This is received by the server, which examines the check-sum to ensure that the segment is error-free. If it is the server will accept the segment.
- For the next segment, the client increases the sequence number to ‘1001’ by adding the number of bytes in the previous segment (1000). The client sends this to the server, which again ensures that it is error-free. Because the server has set a window size of 2000, the client cannot send anymore segments without the server acknowledging those it has received.
- The server sends a segment with the ACK flag set and the next expected sequence number (2001) as the acknowledgement number. This is interpreted by the client as confirmation that the two segments it sent have been successfully received, and it is now free to send more segments up to the limit of 2000 bytes.
- The windowing process allows the server to control the flow of segments it receives during a TCP transaction. If the server had been overwhelmed with segments from other clients, then it could have delayed sending acknowledgements, thus preventing the clients from sending more segments.
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3 TCP three-way handshake