Student Details
_________________________________________
Name : N L Sri Lasya
Reg. No: 22501A1280
Branch: Information Technology
Year: 3rd year
Windows in TCP
Contents
• Windows in TCP
• Send Window
• Receive Window
• Comparison with Selective-Repeat protocol
• Sliding window in linear format
• Sliding window in circular format
Windows in TCP
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a fundamental component of the Internet protocol suite,
responsible for establishing and maintaining reliable connections between devices across
networks.
• In TCP, the concept of windowing plays a important role in optimizing data transfer efficiency by
managing flow control and error recovery mechanisms.
• The purpose of the window in TCP is to provide flow control, ensuring that the sender does not
overwhelm the receiver with too much data at once.
• The two windows used in TCP are
1. Send Window
2. Receive Window
Send Window
• The send window is the range of sequence numbers that the sender is allowed to transmit
without receiving an acknowledgment from the receiver.
• It defines the amount of data the sender can send at any given time.
• The window size is 100 bytes, but later we see that the send window size is dictated by the
receiver (flow control) and the congestion in the underlying network (congestion control).
Send Window
Receive Window
• The receive window is the amount of data (in bytes) that the receiver is willing to accept and can
process. It indicates how much buffer space the receiver has available for incoming data.
• The size of the receive window is communicated to the sender in the TCP header, in a field called
the window size or advertised window.
• It helps in flow control by preventing the sender from overwhelming the receiver with more data
than it can handle.
Receive Window
The send window in TCP is similar to the one used with the Selective-Repeat protocol,
but with some differences:
1. Nature of entities related to the window.
2. TCP can store data received from the process and send them later.
3. Number of timers.
There are two differences between the receive window in TCP and the one we used
for Selective-Repeat protocol:
1. TCP allows the receiving process to pull data at its own pace.
The receive window size, normally called rwnd, can be determined as:
rwnd = buffer size - number of waiting bytes to be pulled
2. The way acknowledgments are used in the TCP protocol.
Sliding window in linear format
This is the standard method where the window slides linearly as acknowledgments are received. As
data is acknowledged, the window shifts forward, allowing more data to be sent.
Sliding window in circular format
• This is a variation where the window wraps around in a circular manner within the sequence space.
It can optimize the utilization of sequence numbers and window sizes in certain scenarios.
Conclusion
• Windows in TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) serve several critical functions that are essential
for the efficient, reliable, and controlled transfer of data across a network.
• The window size determines the amount of data that can be sent by the sender before requiring an
acknowledgment from the receiver.
• The sender’s send window is bounded by the receive window size that the receiver advertises. As
the receiver processes and acknowledges the received data, it may increase the receive window
size, allowing the sender’s send window to slide forward and send more data.
References
• Data Communications and Networking, Behrouz A. Forouzan, Fifth Edition, McGrawHill
• EICTA Academy : https://eitca.org/cybersecurity/eitc-is-cnf-computer-networking-
fundamentals/internet-protocols/how-tcp-handles-errors-and-uses-windows/examination-review-
how-tcp-handles-errors-and-uses-windows/explain-the-concept-of-windowing-in-tcp-and-its-role-
in-optimizing-data-transfer-
efficiency/#:~:text=Windowing%20in%20TCP%20refers%20to,an%20acknowledgment%20from
%20the%20receiver.
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