Transmission Control Protocol - Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of carving up information into smaller pieces. The documentation for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) refrers to what it calls 'data streams'. A data stream is really nothing more than a series of zeroes and ones that represent information. TCP receives data from an application and segments the data into pieces. This segmentation is necessary so that the information can be placed inside the TCP data field.

Once the data is segmented it is encapsulated within TCP. The TCP segment and TCP header is then passed down to Internet Protocol which stuffs the TCP segment and header into the payload of the IP datagram.

By segmenting the data, TCP creates chunks of data that can be routed separately over whatever connections are needed in order to reach the destination. Any of these segments can be retransmitted to replace the original segmentst that got lost or damaged in transmission.

 

 

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