TCP provides reliable transmission of data in an IP environment. TCP corresponds to the transport layer (Layer 4) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model. Among the services TCP provides are stream data transfer, reliability, efficient flow control, full-duplex operation, and multiplexing.

With stream data transfer, TCP delivers an unstructured stream of bytes identified by sequence numbers. This service benefits applications because they do not have to chop data into blocks before handing it off to TCP. Instead, TCP groups bytes into segments and passes them to IP for delivery.

TCP offers reliability by providing connection-oriented, end-to-end reliable packet delivery through an internetwork. It does this by sequencing bytes with a forwarding acknowledgment number that indicates to the destination the next byte the source expects to receive. Bytes not acknowledged within a specified time period are retransmitted. The reliability mechanism of TCP allows devices to handle lost, delayed, duplicate, or misread packets. A timeout mechanism allows devices to detect lost packets and request retransmission.

TCP offers efficient flow control, which means that the receiving TCP process indicates the highest sequence number it can receive without overflowing its internal buffers when sending acknowledgments back to the source.

TCP offers full-duplex operation and TCP processes can both send and receive at the same time.

TCP multiplexing allows numerous simultaneous upper-layer conversations to be multiplexed over a single connection.

To use reliable transport services, TCP hosts must establish a connection-oriented session with one another. Connection establishment is performed by using a “three-way handshake” mechanism.

A three-way handshake synchronizes both ends of a connection by allowing both sides to agree upon initial sequence numbers. This mechanism also guarantees that both sides are ready to transmit data and know that the other side also is ready to transmit. The three-way handshake is necessary so that packets are not transmitted or retransmitted during session establishment or after session termination.

Each host randomly chooses a sequence number used to track bytes within the stream it is sending. Then, the three-way handshake proceeds in the following manner:

• The first host (Host A) initiates a connection by sending a packet with the initial sequence number (X) and synchronize/start (SYN) bit set to indicate a connection request.
• The second host (Host B) receives the SYN, records the sequence number X, and replies by acknowledging the SYN (with an ACK = X + 1). Host B includes its own initial sequence number (SEQ = Y). An ACK = 20 means the host has received bytes 0 through 19 and expects byte 20 next. This technique is called forward acknowledgment.
• Host A acknowledges all bytes Host B sent with a forward acknowledgment indicating the next byte Host A expects to receive (ACK = Y + 1). Data transfer then can begin.

You can set the amount of time the Cisco IOS software will wait to attempt to establish a TCP connection. Because the connection attempt time is a host parameter, it does not pertain to traffic going through the device, just to traffic originated at the device. To set the TCP connection attempt time, use the ip tcp synwait-time command in global configuration mode. The default is 30 seconds.

The TCP Selective Acknowledgment feature improves performance in the event that multiple packets are lost from one TCP window of data.

Prior to this feature, with the limited information available from cumulative acknowledgments, a TCP sender could learn about only one lost packet per round-trip time. An aggressive sender could choose to resend packets early, but such re-sent segments might have already been successfully received.

The TCP selective acknowledgment mechanism helps improve performance. The receiving TCP host returns selective acknowledgment packets to the sender, informing the sender of data that have been received. In other words, the receiver can acknowledge packets received out of order. The sender can then resend only the missing data segments (instead of everything since the first missing packet).

Prior to selective acknowledgment, if TCP lost packets 4 and 7 out of an 8-packet window, TCP would receive acknowledgment of only packets 1, 2, and 3. Packets 4 through 8 would need to be re-sent. With selective acknowledgment, TCP receives acknowledgment of packets 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8. Only packets 4 and 7 must be re-sent.

TCP selective acknowledgment is used only when multiple packets are dropped within one TCP window. There is no performance impact when the feature is enabled but not used. Use the ip tcp selective-ack command in global configuration mode to enable TCP selective acknowledgment.

Refer to RFC 2018 for more detailed information about TCP selective acknowledgment.

The TCP time-stamp option provides improved TCP round-trip time measurements. Because the time stamps are always sent and echoed in both directions and the time-stamp value in the header is always changing, TCP header compression will not compress the outgoing packet. To allow TCP header compression over a serial link, the TCP time-stamp option is disabled. Use the ip tcp timestamp command to enable the TCP time-stamp option.

Refer to RFC 1323 for more detailed information on TCP time stamps.

The maximum number of characters that TCP reads from the input queue for Telnet and rlogin at one time is a very large number (the largest possible 32-bit positive number) by default. To change the TCP maximum read size value, use the ip tcp chunk-size command in global configuration mode.

We do not recommend that you change this value.

Path MTU Discovery is a method for maximizing the use of available bandwidth in the network between the endpoints of a TCP connection, which is described in RFC 1191. IP Path MTU Discovery allows a host to dynamically discover and cope with differences in the maximum allowable maximum transmission unit (MTU) size of the various links along the path. Sometimes a router is unable to forward a datagram because it requires fragmentation (the packet is larger than the MTU you set for the interface with the interface configuration command), but the "don't fragment" (DF) bit is set. The intermediate gateway sends a "Fragmentation needed and DF bit set" Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) message to the sending host, alerting it to the problem. Upon receiving this ICMP message, the host reduces its assumed path MTU and consequently sends a smaller packet that will fit the smallest packet size of all the links along the path.

By default, TCP Path MTU Discovery is disabled. Existing connections are not affected when this feature is enabled or disabled.

Customers using TCP connections to move bulk data between systems on distinct subnets would benefit most by enabling this feature. Customers using remote source-route bridging (RSRB) with TCP encapsulation, serial tunnel (STUN), X.25 Remote Switching (also known as XOT or X.25 over TCP), and some protocol translation configurations might also benefit from enabling this feature.

Use the ip tcp path-mtu-discovery global configuration command to enable Path MTU Discovery for connections initiated by the router when it is acting as a host.

For more information about Path MTU Discovery, refer to the "Configuring IP Services" chapter of the Cisco IOSIP Application Services Configuration Guide.

A TCP sliding window provides more efficient use of network bandwidth because it enables hosts to send multiple bytes or packets before waiting for an acknowledgment.

In TCP, the receiver specifies the current window size in every packet. Because TCP provides a byte-stream connection, window sizes are expressed in bytes. A window is the number of data bytes that the sender is allowed to send before waiting for an acknowledgment. Initial window sizes are indicated at connection setup, but might vary throughout the data transfer to provide flow control. A window size of zero means “Send no data.” The default TCP window size is 4128 bytes. We recommend you keep the default value unless you know your router is sending large packets (greater than 536 bytes). Use the ip tcp window-size command to change the default window size.

In a TCP sliding-window operation, for example, the sender might have a sequence of bytes to send (numbered 1 to 10) to a receiver who has a window size of five. The sender then places a window around the first five bytes and transmits them together. The sender then waits for an acknowledgment.

The receiver responds with an ACK = 6, indicating that it has received bytes 1 to 5 and is expecting byte 6 next. In the same packet, the receiver indicates that its window size is 5. The sender then moves the sliding window five bytes to the right and transmit bytes 6 to 10. The receiver responds with an ACK = 11, indicating that it is expecting sequenced byte 11 next. In this packet, the receiver might indicate that its window size is 0 (because, for example, its internal buffers are full). At this point, the sender cannot send any more bytes until the receiver sends another packet with a window size greater than 0.

The default TCP outgoing queue size per connection is 5 segments if the connection has a TTY associated with it (such as a Telnet connection). If no TTY connection is associated with a connection, the default queue size is 20 segments. Use the ip tcp queuemax command to change the 5-segment default value.

The TCP MSS Adjustment feature enables the configuration of the maximum segment size (MSS) for transient packets that traverse a router, specifically TCP segments with the SYN bit set. Use the ip tcp adjust-mss command in interface configuration mode to specify the MSS value on the intermediate router of the SYN packets to avoid truncation.

When a host (usually a PC) initiates a TCP session with a server, it negotiates the IP segment size by using the MSS option field in the TCP SYN packet. The value of the MSS field is determined by the MTU configuration on the host. The default MSS value for a PC is 1500 bytes.

The PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) standard supports an MTU of only 1492 bytes. The disparity between the host and PPPoE MTU size can cause the router in between the host and the server to drop 1500-byte packets and terminate TCP sessions over the PPPoE network. Even if the path MTU (which detects the correct MTU across the path) is enabled on the host, sessions may be dropped because system administrators sometimes disable the ICMP error messages that must be relayed from the host in order for path MTU to work.

The ip tcp adjust-mss command helps prevent TCP sessions from being dropped by adjusting the MSS value of the TCP SYN packets.

The ip tcp adjust-mss command is effective only for TCP connections passing through the router.

In most cases, the optimum value for the max-segment-size argument of the ip tcp adjust-mss command is 1452 bytes. This value plus the 20-byte IP header, the 20-byte TCP header, and the 8-byte PPPoE header add up to a 1500-byte packet that matches the MTU size for the Ethernet link.

See the "Configuring the MSS Value and MTU for Transient TCP SYN Packets" section for configuration instructions.

The TCP MIB for RFC 4022 Support feature introduces support for RFC 4022, Management Information Base for the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). RFC 4022 is an incremental change of the TCP MIB to improve the manageability of TCP.

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    ip tcp synwait-time seconds

4.    ip tcp path-mtu-discovery [age-timer {minutes | infinite}]

5.    ip tcp selective-ack

6.    ip tcp timestamp

7.    ip tcp chunk-size characters

8.    ip tcp window-size bytes

9.    ip tcp ecn

10.    ip tcp queuemax packets

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    interface type number

4.    ip tcp adjust-mss max-segment-size

5.    ip mtu bytes

6.    end

1.    show tcp [line-number] [tcb address]

2.    show tcp brief [all | numeric]

3.    debug ip tcp transactions

4.    debug ip tcp congestion