Transport Layer

 The transport layer is a 4th layer from the top.

 The main role of the transport layer is to provide the communication services
directly to the application processes running on different hosts.
 The transport layer provides a logical communication between application
processes running on different hosts. Although the application processes on
different hosts are not physically connected, application processes use the logical
communication provided by the transport layer to send the messages to each other.
 The transport layer protocols are implemented in the end systems but not in the
network routers.
 A computer network provides more than one protocol to the network applications.
For example, TCP and UDP are two transport layer protocols that provide a
different set of services to the network layer.
 All transport layer protocols provide multiplexing/demultiplexing service. It also
provides other services such as reliable data transfer, bandwidth guarantees, and
delay guarantees.
 Each of the applications in the application layer has the ability to send a message by
using TCP or UDP. The application communicates by using either of these two
protocols. Both TCP and UDP will then communicate with the internet protocol in
the internet layer. The applications can read and write to the transport layer.
Therefore, we can say that communication is a two-way process.
Functions:

1. Service Point Addressing: Transport Layer header includes service point

address which is port address. This layer gets the message to the correct
process on the computer unlike Network Layer, which gets each packet to the
correct computer.
2. Segmentation and Reassembling: A message is divided into segments; each
segment contains sequence number, which enables this layer inreassembling
the message. Message is reassembled correctly upon arrival at the destination
and replaces packets which were lost in transmission.
3. Connection Control: It includes 2 types:
o Connectionless Transport Layer : Each segment is considered as an
independent packet and delivered to the transport layer at the
destination machine.
o Connection Oriented Transport Layer : Before delivering packets,
connection is made with transport layer at the destination machine.
4. Flow Control: In this layer, flow control is performed end to end.
5. Error Control: Error Control is performed end to end in this layer to ensure
that the complete message arrives at the receiving transport layer without any
error. Error Correction is done through retransmission.
Design Issues:

 Accepting data from Session layer, split it into segments and send to the
network layer.
 Ensure correct delivery of data with efficiency.
 Isolate upper layers from the technological changes.
 Error control and flow control.

The two main Transport layer protocols are:

 Transmission Control Protocol
It provides reliable communication between two hosts.
  User Datagram Protocol
It provides unreliable communication between two hosts.

UDP

 UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol.

 UDP is a simple protocol and it provides non-sequenced transport
functionality.
 UDP is a connectionless protocol.
 This type of protocol is used when reliability and security are less
important than speed and size.
 UDP is an end-to-end transport level protocol that adds transport-level
addresses, checksum error control, and length information to the data from
the upper layer.
 The packet produced by the UDP protocol is known as a user datagram.

User Datagram Format

The user datagram has a 16-byte header which is shown below:

Where,

 Source port address: It defines the address of the application process that
has delivered a message. The source port address is of 16 bits address.
 Destination port address: It defines the address of the application process
that will receive the message. The destination port address is of a 16-bit
address.
 Total length: It defines the total length of the user datagram in bytes. It is a
16-bit field.
 Checksum: The checksum is a 16-bit field which is used in error detection.

Disadvantages of UDP protocol

  UDP provides basic functions needed for the end-to-end delivery of a
transmission.
 It does not provide any sequencing or reordering functions and does not
specify the damaged packet when reporting an error.
 UDP can discover that an error has occurred, but it does not specify which
packet has been lost as it does not contain an ID or sequencing number of a
particular data segment.

TCP

 TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol.

 It provides full transport layer services to applications.
 It is a connection-oriented protocol means the connection established
between both the ends of the transmission. For creating the connection,
TCP generates a virtual circuit between sender and receiver for the duration
of a transmission.

Features of TCP protocol

 Stream data transfer: TCP protocol transfers the data in the form of
contiguous stream of bytes. TCP group the bytes in the form of TCP
segments and then passed it to the IP layer for transmission to the
destination. TCP itself segments the data and forward to the IP.
 Reliability: TCP assigns a sequence number to each byte transmitted and
expects a positive acknowledgement from the receiving TCP. If ACK is
not received within a timeout interval, then the data is retransmitted to the
destination.
The receiving TCP uses the sequence number to reassemble the segments if
they arrive out of order or to eliminate the duplicate segments.
 Flow Control: When receiving TCP sends an acknowledgement back to
the sender indicating the number the bytes it can receive without
overflowing its internal buffer. The number of bytes is sent in ACK in the
form of the highest sequence number that it can receive without any
problem. This mechanism is also referred to as a window mechanism.
 Multiplexing: Multiplexing is a process of accepting the data from
different applications and forwarding to the different applications on
different computers. At the receiving end, the data is forwarded to the
correct application. This process is known as demultiplexing. TCP
transmits the packet to the correct application by using the logical channels
known as ports.
 Logical Connections: The combination of sockets, sequence numbers, and
 window sizes, is called a logical connection. Each connection is identified
by the pair of sockets used by sending and receiving processes.
 Full Duplex: TCP provides Full Duplex service, i.e., the data flow in both
the directions at the same time. To achieve Full Duplex service, each TCP
should have sending and receiving buffers so that the segments can flow in
both the directions. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. Suppose the
process A wants to send and receive the data from process B. The following
steps occur:
i. Establish a connection between two TCPs.
ii. Data is exchanged in both the directions.
iii. The Connection is terminated.

TCP Segment Format

Where,

 Source port address: It is used to define the address of the application

program in a source computer. It is a 16-bit field.
 Destination port address: It is used to define the address of the
application program in a destination computer. It is a 16-bit field.
 Sequence number: A stream of data is divided into two or more TCP
segments. The 32-bit sequence number field represents the position of the
data in an original data stream.
 Acknowledgement number: A 32-field acknowledgement number
acknowledge the data from other communicating devices. If ACK field is
set to 1, then it specifies the sequence number that the receiver is expecting
to receive.
 Header Length (HLEN): It specifies the size of the TCP header in 32-bit
words. The minimum size of the header is 5 words, and the maximum size
 of the header is 15 words. Therefore, the maximum size of the TCP header is
60 bytes, and the minimum size of the TCP header is 20 bytes.
 Reserved: It is a six-bit field which is reserved for future use.
 Control bits: Each bit of a control field functions individually and
independently. A control bit defines the use of a segment or serves as a
validity check for other fields.

There are total six types of flags in control field:

 URG: The URG field indicates that the data in a segment is urgent.
 ACK: When ACK field is set, then it validates the acknowledgement
number.
 PSH: The PSH field is used to inform the sender that higher throughput is
needed so if possible, data must be pushed with higher throughput.
 RST: The reset bit is used to reset the TCP connection when there is any
confusion occurs in the sequence numbers.
 SYN: The SYN field is used to synchronize the sequence numbers in three
types of segments: connection request, connection confirmation ( with the
ACK bit set ), and confirmation acknowledgement.
 FIN: The FIN field is used to inform the receiving TCP module that the
sender has finished sending data. It is used in connection termination in
three types of segments: termination request, termination confirmation, and
acknowledgement of termination confirmation.
i. Window Size: The window is a 16-bit field that defines the size of the
window.
ii. Checksum: The checksum is a 16-bit field used in error detection.
iii. Urgent pointer: If URG flag is set to 1, then this 16-bit field is an offset
from the sequence number indicating that it is a last urgent data byte.
iv. Options and padding: It defines the optional fields that convey the
additional information to the receiver.
Differences b/w TCP & UDP

Basis for TCP UDP

Comparison

Definition TCP establishes a virtual UDP transmits the data

circuit before directly to the destination
transmitting the data. computer without verifying
whether the receiver is ready
to receive or not.
 Connection Type It is a Connection- It is a Connectionless
Oriented protocol protocol

Speed slow high

Reliability It is a reliable protocol. It is an unreliable protocol.

Header size 20 bytes 8 bytes

acknowledgement It waits for the It neither takes the

acknowledgement of acknowledgement, nor it
data and has the ability to retransmits the damaged
resend the lost packets. frame.

TCP-window management

Window management in TCP is an important concept that ensures reliability in

packet delivery as well as reduce the wastage of time in waiting for the
acknowledge after each packet.

Window size: window size determines the amount of data that you can transmit
before receiving an acknowledgment. Sliding window refers to the fact that the
window size is negotiated dynamically during the TCP session.

1. Expectational acknowledgment means that the acknowledgment number

refers to the octet that is next expected
2. If the source receives no acknowledgment, it knows to retransmit at
a slower rate.
The mechanism of the sliding window style may be understood easily with the
help of below given diagrams: