Transmission Control Protocol

Transmission Control Protocol or TCP is a set of procedures or protocols used along with the Internet Protocol to direct data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. Although IP takes care of controlling the actual delivery of the data, transmission control protocol at the same time, manages the tracking of the individual units of data or packets in which a message is separated into for effective routing through the Internet. TCP is also referred to as a connection-oriented protocol.

TCP delivers consistent, well-organized and error-checked distribution of a stream of octets between the programs operating on computers connected to a LAN, intranet or the public Internet.