TCP/IP is a suite of protocols, each playing a crucial role:
- Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): Imagine TCP as a reliable delivery service. It breaks down data into manageable packets, ensures they arrive in the correct order at their destination, and requests retransmission of any lost packets.
- Internet Protocol (IP): Think of IP as the addressing system. It assigns a unique IP address (like a house number) to every device connected to the internet, allowing packets to find their way to the intended recipient.
The Data Transfer Journey:
- Application Talks: Your web browser (application) initiates communication with a website by requesting a webpage.
- TCP Takes Charge: TCP chops the webpage data into smaller packets, adds headers with sequence numbers and destination IP address, and hands them over to IP.
- IP Does the Routing: IP adds the source IP address to the packets and injects them into the network. Routers, acting like traffic controllers, use the destination IP address to determine the most efficient route for the packets.
- Packet Delivery: Packets travel through the network, hopping between routers until they reach the destination device's IP address.
- TCP Reassembles: The receiving device's TCP collects the incoming packets, reassembles them in the correct order based on the sequence numbers, and delivers the complete data to the application (e.g., your web browser).
