November 23, 2020

Understanding the Differences between TCP and IP

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) forms a core standard of the Internet Protocol Suite that governs the communications across the internet and other computer networks. It operates at a much higher level when compared to IP (Internet Protocol), which is another principal communications standard.

The major concerns of TCP remain the two ends that send and receive data packets, such as a web server and the browser on a user’s computer. TCP ensures optimal delivery of data packets to and from both ends to establish and maintain the connection. Apart from that, TCP also manages flow control, size of the data packets, the data exchange rate, as well as congestions in the network traffic.

IP, on the other hand, maintains data communication across a packet-switched internetwork, which collects all the transmitted data together. IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite, and its main function is to deliver distinguished protocol data packets from the host data source to the destination based on the IP addresses. That way, IP defines the addressing strategies and structures for encapsulating the data packets.

Simply put, TCP offers its services at an intermediate level that range between the application and the IP. This means that when an application sends huge amounts of data across the internet using an IP, it redirects the request to TCP for handling the details of the IP transfer. This avoids the need to break the data into small fragments that can fit the IP layer and using a stream of requests from the IP. Issuing a single request to TCP can handle the details of the IP transfer easily.

In such a case, TCP will identify the problems that could arise by transferring the data via IP, ask for the retransmission of the lost data packets, reorganize the order of the data packets, and minimize network congestion to facilitate a smooth transmission. This also helps to prevent other problems from arising at a later point. After the data packets are compiled into a proper copy, TCP will send it to the destination application program as requested.

IP can also be termed a protocol without a connection because it does not require a circuit set-up to encapsulate and send data packets to a host to which it has never communicated earlier. As such, it can work over a heterogeneous network that consists of different computers and connection tools to resolve IPv4 addresses to data link IP addresses.