Tcp error correction

The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol. Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP What is error control In Tcp? Error control in data link layer is the process of detecting and correcting data frames that have been

Control

The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol. Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP

What is error control In Tcp?

Error control in data link layer is the process of detecting and correcting data frames that have been corrupted or lost during transmission. In case of lost or corrupted frames, the receiver does not receive the correct data-frame and sender is ignorant about the loss.

What are the key functions of error control techniques?

Error Control is a technique of error detection and retransmission. Stop-and-wait ARQ is a technique used to retransmit the data in case of damaged or lost frames. This technique works on the principle that the sender will not transmit the next frame until it receives the acknowledgement of the last transmitted frame.

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TCP vs. IP: What is the Difference?

TCP and IP are separate protocols that work together to ensure data is delivered to its intended destination within a network. IP obtains and defines the address—the IP address—of the application or device the data must be sent to. TCP is then responsible for transporting data and ensuring it gets delivered to the destination application or device that IP has defined. 

In other words, the IP address is akin to a phone number assigned to a smartphone. TCP is the computer networking version of the technology used to make the smartphone ring and enable its user to talk to the person who called them. The two protocols are frequently used together and rely on each other for data to have a destination and safely reach it, which is why the process is regularly referred to as TCP/IP.

How Does TCP/IP Work?

The TCP/IP model was developed by the United States Department of Defense to enable the accurate and correct transmission of data between devices. It breaks messages into packets to avoid having to resend the entire message in case it encounters a problem during transmission. Packets are reassembled once they reach their destination. Every packet can take a different route between the source and the destination computer, depending on whether the original route used becomes congested or unavailable.

TCP/IP divides communication tasks into layers that keep the process standardized, without hardware and software providers having to try and manage it themselves. The data packets must pass through four layers before they are received by the destination device, then TCP/IP goes through the layers in reverse order to put the message back into its original format. 

As a connection-oriented protocol, TCP establishes and maintains a connection between applications or devices until they finish exchanging data. It determines how the original message should be broken into packets, numbers and reassembles the packets, and sends them on to other devices on the network, such as routers, security gateways, and switches, then on to their destination. TCP also sends and receives packets from the network layer, handles the transmission of any dropped packets, manages flow control, and ensures all packets reach their destination.

A good example of how this works in practice is when an email is sent using SMTP from an email server. The TCP layer in the server divides the message into packets, numbers them, and forwards them to the IP layer, which then transports each packet to the destination email server. When packets arrive, they are handed back to the TCP layer to be reassembled into the original message format and handed back to the email server, which delivers the message to a user’s email inbox.

TCP/IP uses a three-way handshake to establish a connection between a device and a server, which ensures multiple TCP socket connections can be transferred in both directions concurrently. Both the device and server must synchronize and acknowledge packets before communication begins, then they can negotiate, separate, and transfer TCP socket connections.

The 4 Layers of the TCP/IP Model

The TCP/IP model defines how devices should transmit data between them and enables communication over networks and large distances. The model represents how data is exchanged and organized over networks. It is split into four layers, which set the standards for data exchange and represent how data is handled and packaged when being delivered between applications, devices, and servers.

The four layers of the TCP/IP model are as follows:

  1. Datalink layer: The datalink layer defines how data should be sent, handles the physical act of sending and receiving data, and is responsible for transmitting data between applications or devices on a network. This includes defining how data should be signaled by hardware and other transmission devices on a network, such as a computer’s device driver, an Ethernet cable, a network interface card (NIC), or a wireless network. It is also referred to as the link layer, network access layer, network interface layer, or physical layer and is the combination of the physical and data link layers of the Open systems Interconnections (OS)Model which standardizes communications functions on computing and telecommunications systems.
  2. Internet layer: The internet layer is responsible for sending packets from a network and controlling their movement across a network to ensure they reach their destination. It provides the functions and procedures for transferring data sequences between applications and devices across networks.
  3. Transport layer: The transport layer is responsible for providing a solid and reliable data connection between the original application or device and its intended destination. This is the level where data is divided into packets and numbered to create a sequence. The transport layer then determines how much data must be sent, where it should be sent to, and at what rate. It ensures that data packets are sent without errors and in sequence and obtains the acknowledgment that the destination device has received the data packets.
  4. Application layer: The application layer refers to programs that need TCP/IP to help them communicate with each other. This is the level that users typically interact with, such as email systems and messaging platforms. It combines the session, presentation, and application layers of the OSI model.

TCP ERROR CONTROL PROCEDURES

TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or duplicated.

TCP provides reliability using error control. Error control includes mechanisms for detecting corrupted segments, lost segments, out-of-order segments, and duplicated segments. Error control also includes a mechanism for correcting errors after they are detected. Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out.

1. Checksum:

Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, it is discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost. TCP uses a 16-bit checksum that is mandatory in every segment.

2. Acknowledgment:

TCP uses acknowledgments to confirm the receipt of data segments. Control segments that carry no data but consume a sequence number are also acknowledged. ACK segments are never acknowledged.

3. Retransmission:

The heart of the error control mechanism is the retransmission of segments. When a segment is corrupted, lost, or delayed, it is retransmitted. A segment is retransmitted on two occasions: when a retransmission timer expires or when the sender receives three duplicate ACKs.

Retransmission After RTO:

A recent implementation of TCP maintains one retransmission time-out (RTO) timer for all outstanding (sent, but not acknowledged) segments.

When the timer matures, the earliest outstanding segment is retransmitted even though lack of a received ACK can be due to a delayed segment, a delayed ACK, or a lost acknowledgment. Note that no time-out timer is set for a segment that carries only an acknowledgment. The value of RTO is dynamic in TCP and is updated based on the round-trip time (RTT) of segments. An RTI is the time needed for a segment to reach a destination and for an acknowledgment to be received.

Retransmission After Three Duplicate ACK Segments:

The previous rule about retransmission of a segment is sufficient if the value of RTO is not very large. Sometimes, however, one segment is lost and the receiver receives so many out-of-order segments that they cannot be saved (limited buffer size). To avoid this situation, most implementations today follow the three-duplicate-ACKs rule and retransmit the missing segment immediately. This feature is referred to as fast retransmission.

Out-of-Order Segments:

When a segment is delayed, lost, or discarded, the segments following that segment arrive out of order. The out-of-order segments are stored temporarily and flag them as out-of-order segments until the missing segment arrives. Note, however, that the out-of-order segments are not delivered to the process. TCP guarantees that data are delivered to the process in order.

Lost Segment:

A lost segment and a corrupted segment are treated the same way by the receiver. A lost segment is discarded somewhere in the network; a corrupted segment is discarded by the receiver itself. Both are considered lost.

Fast Retransmission:

In this example, If RTO has a higher value and receiver receives the fourth, fifth, and sixth segments, it triggers an acknowledgment. The sender receives four acknowledgments with the same value (three duplicates). Although the timer for segment 3 has not matured yet, the fast transmission requires that segment 3, the segment that is expected by all these acknowledgments, be resent immediately.

Note that only one segment is retransmitted although four segments are not acknowledged. When the sender receives the retransmitted ACK, it knows that the four segments are safe and sound because acknowledgment is cumulative.

Drop your comment

Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out. Checksum : Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, it is discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost.

Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out. Checksum : Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment.

Full
Answer

What is TCP error detection and correction?

Oct 18, 2017 · Prerequisite – TCP/IP Model TCP protocol has methods for finding out corrupted segments, missing segments, out-of-order segments and duplicated segments. Error control in TCP is mainly done through the use of three simple techniques: Checksum – Every segment contains a checksum field which is used to find corrupted segments. If the segment is …

What is the basic approach used for error detection?

Jan 16, 2021 · Errors in the received frames are detected utilizing Parity Check and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC). In both cases, few extra bits are sent along with actual data to confirm that bits received at the other end are the same as they were sent. If the counter-check at the receiver’s end fails, the bits are considered corrupted. Parity Check

How do you control TCP error messages?

TCP provides reliability using error control. Error control includes mechanisms for detecting corrupted segments, lost segments, out-of-order segments, and duplicated segments. Error control also includes a mechanism for correcting errors after they are detected.

How to detect errors in the transmitted data?

Jan 09, 2016 · Basic approach used for error detection is the use of redundancy bits, where additional bits are added to facilitate detection of errors. Some popular techniques for error detection are: 1. Simple Parity check 2. Two-dimensional Parity check 3. Checksum 4. Cyclic redundancy check . 1. Simple Parity check

How is error control done in TCP?

Error control in TCP is mainly done through the use of three simple techniques :Checksum – Every segment contains a checksum field which is used to find corrupted segments. … Acknowledgement – TCP has another mechanism called acknowledgement to affirm that the data segments have been delivered.More items…•Sep 22, 2021

Does TCP provide error correction?

TCP uses error correction and data stream control techniques to ensure that packets to arrive at their intended destinations uncorrupted and in the correct sequence, thereby making the point-to-point connection virtually error-free. Packets are the most fundamental unit of data transmission on TCP/IP networks.Oct 19, 2005

Which technique is used for error correction?

The method of detecting and correcting burst errors in the data sequence is called “Burst error correction”. Hamming code or Hamming Distance Code is the best error correcting code we use in most of the communication network and digital systems.Jun 20, 2019

What are error detection techniques?

Some popular techniques for error detection are:Simple Parity check.Two-dimensional Parity check.Checksum.Cyclic redundancy check.Jun 28, 2021

What does TCP error mean?

The two most common causes of this are: Misconfiguration, such as where a user has mistyped the port number, or is using stale information about what port the service they require is running on. A service error, such as where the service that should be listening on a port has crashed or is otherwise unavailable.

Which layers perform error detection and flow control?

Data-link layer is responsible for implementation of point-to-point flow and error control mechanism.

What is error detection and error correction method?

In the digital world, error correction can be done in two ways: Backward Error Correction When the receiver detects an error in the data received, it requests back the sender to retransmit the data unit.

Which error detection method involves polynomials?

Cyclic Redundancy Check(CRC)Which error detection method involves polynomials? Explanation: Cyclic Redundancy Check(CRC) involves parity check polynomials. In the even parity case of CRC, the 1-bit is generated by checking the polynomial x+1.

What is error detector in control?

An error detector is any device or combination of devices used to determine the difference between the desired output (i.e. the input) and the actual output.

What is the most common method of error detection?

cyclic redundancy check (CRC)One of the most common techniques for detecting transmission errors is a technique known as the cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

What are the three methods of error checking?

There are three main techniques for detecting errors in frames: Parity Check, Checksum and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC).Jan 4, 2019

What are the two techniques for error correction?

There are two approaches to error correction:Backward Error Correction: When a backward mistake is detected, the receiver requests that the sender retransmit the complete data unit.Forward Error Correction: In this scenario, the error-correcting code is used by the receiver, which automatically corrects the mistakes.

What is TCP protocol?

TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or duplicated.

What is error control mechanism?

The heart of the error control mechanism is the retransmission of segments. When a segment is corrupted, lost, or delayed, it is retransmitted. A segment is retransmitted on two occasions: when a retransmission timer expires or when the sender receives three duplicate ACKs.

What is a checksum field in TCP?

Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, it is discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost. TCP uses a 16-bit checksum that is mandatory in every segment.

What happens when a segment is delayed, lost, or discarded?

When a segment is delayed, lost, or discarded, the segments following that segment arrive out of order. The out-of-order segments are stored temporarily and flag them as out-of-order segments until the missing segment arrives. Note, however, that the out-of-order segments are not delivered to the process. TCP guarantees that data are delivered to the process in order.

What is a lost segment?

A lost segment and a corrupted segment are treated the same way by the receiver. A lost segment is discarded somewhere in the network; a corrupted segment is discarded by the receiver itself. Both are considered lost.

What is an error in a device?

An Error is a situation when the message received at the receiver end is not identical to the message transmitted.

What happens if two bits are corrupted?

If two bits in one data unit are corrupted and two bits exactly the same position in another data unit are also corrupted, then 2D Parity checker will not be able to detect the error.

How many zeros are appended to the end of a CRC?

A CRC generator uses a modulo-2 division. Firstly, three zeroes are appended at the end of the data as the length of the divisor is 4 and we know that the length of the string 0s to be appended is always one less than the length of the divisor.

What is a checksum?

A Checksum is verified at the receiving side. The receiver subdivides the incoming data into equal segments of n bits each, and all these segments are added together, and then this sum is complemented. If the complement of the sum is zero, then the data is accepted otherwise data is rejected.

What is TCP protocol?

TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or duplicated.

What causes congestion in a network?

Congestion in a network may occur if the load on the network- the number of packets sent to the network-is greater than the capacity of the network -the number of packets a network can handle.

What is the main focus of congestion control and quality of service?

The main focus of congestion control and quality of service is data traffic. In congestion control we try to avoid traffic congestion. In quality of service, we try to create an appropriate environment for the traffic.

Why are bits corrupted?

When bits are transmitted over the computer network, they are subject to get corrupted due to interference and network problems. The corrupted bits leads to spurious data being received by the destination and are called errors.

How does parity check work?

The parity check is done by adding an extra bit, called parity bit to the data to make a number of 1s either even in case of even parity or odd in case of odd parity. While creating a frame, the sender counts the number of 1s in it and adds the parity bit in the following way.

Error detection is most commonly realized using a suitable hash function (or specifically, a checksum, cyclic redundancy check or other algorithm). A hash function adds a fixed-length tag to a message, which enables receivers to verify the delivered message by recomputing the tag and comparing it with the one provided.

What is error detection and correction?

All error-detection and correction schemes add some redundancy (i.e., some extra data) to a message, which receivers can use to check consistency of the delivered message, and to recover data that has been determined to be corrupted. Error-detection and correction schemes can be either systematic or non-systematic. In a systematic scheme, the transmitter sends the original data, and attaches a fixed number of check bits (or parity data ), which are derived from the data bits by some deterministic algorithm. If only error detection is required, a receiver can simply apply the same algorithm to the received data bits and compare its output with the received check bits; if the values do not match, an error has occurred at some point during the transmission. In a system that uses a non-systematic code, the original message is transformed into an encoded message carrying the same information and that has at least as many bits as the original message.

What is hybrid ARQ?

Hybrid ARQ is a combination of ARQ and forward error correction. There are two basic approaches: 1 Messages are always transmitted with FEC parity data (and error-detection redundancy). A receiver decodes a message using the parity information, and requests retransmission using ARQ only if the parity data was not sufficient for successful decoding (identified through a failed integrity check). 2 Messages are transmitted without parity data (only with error-detection information). If a receiver detects an error, it requests FEC information from the transmitter using ARQ, and uses it to reconstruct the original message.

How did copyists of the Bible work?

In classical antiquity, copyists of the Hebrew Bible were paid for their work according to the number of stichs (lines of verse). As the prose books of the Bible were hardly ever written in stichs, the copyists, in order to estimate the amount of work, had to count the letters. This also helped ensure accuracy in the transmission of the text with the production of subsequent copies. Between the 7th and 10th centuries CE a group of Jewish scribes formalized and expanded this to create the Numerical Masorah to ensure accurate reproduction of the sacred text. It included counts of the number of words in a line, section, book and groups of books, noting the middle stich of a book, word use statistics, and commentary. Standards became such that a deviation in even a single letter in a Torah scroll was considered unacceptable. The effectiveness of their error correction method was verified by the accuracy of copying through the centuries demonstrated by discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947-1956, dating from c.150 BCE-75 CE.

When were the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered?

The effectiveness of their error correction method was verified by the accuracy of copying through the centuries demonstrated by discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947-1956, dating from c.150 BCE-75 CE.

Who developed error correction codes?

The modern development of error correction codes is credited to Richard Hamming in 1947. A description of Hamming’s code appeared in Claude Shannon ‘s A Mathematical Theory of Communication and was quickly generalized by Marcel J. E. Golay.

What is an ARQ?

Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) is an error control method for data transmission that makes use of error-detection codes, acknowledgment and/or negative acknowledgment messages, and timeouts to achieve reliable data transmission. An acknowledgment is a message sent by the receiver to indicate that it has correctly received a data frame .

Single-Bit Error

Image

The only one bit of a given data unit is changed from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. In the above figure, the message which is sent is corrupted as single-bit, i.e., 0 bit is changed to 1. Single-Bit Errordoes not appear more likely in Serial Data Transmission. For example, Sender sends the data at 10 Mbps, this means that th…

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Burst Error

  • The two or more bits are changed from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0 is known as Burst Error. The Burst Error is determined from the first corrupted bit to the last corrupted bit. The duration of noise in Burst Error is more than the duration of noise in Single-Bit. Burst Errors are most likely to occurr in Serial Data Transmission. The number of affected bits depends on the duration of the noise an…

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Error Detecting Techniques

  • The most popular Error Detecting Techniques are: 1. Single parity check 2. Two-dimensional parity check 3. Checksum 4. Cyclic redundancy check

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Single Parity Check

  1. Single Parity checking is the simple mechanism and inexpensive to detect the errors.
  2. In this technique, a redundant bit is also known as a parity bit which is appended at the end of the data unit so that the number of 1s becomes even. Therefore, the total number of transmitted bits…
  3. If the number of 1s bits is odd, then parity bit 1 is appended and if the number of 1s bits is ev…
  1. Single Parity checking is the simple mechanism and inexpensive to detect the errors.
  2. In this technique, a redundant bit is also known as a parity bit which is appended at the end of the data unit so that the number of 1s becomes even. Therefore, the total number of transmitted bits…
  3. If the number of 1s bits is odd, then parity bit 1 is appended and if the number of 1s bits is even, then parity bit 0 is appended at the end of the data unit.
  4. At the receiving end, the parity bit is calculated from the received data bits and compared with the received parity bit.

Two-Dimensional Parity Check

  1. Performance can be improved by using Two-Dimensional Parity Checkwhich organizes the data in the form of a table.
  2. Parity check bits are computed for each row, which is equivalent to the single-parity check.
  3. In Two-Dimensional Parity check, a block of bits is divided into rows, and the redundant row of bits is added to the whole block.
  1. Performance can be improved by using Two-Dimensional Parity Checkwhich organizes the data in the form of a table.
  2. Parity check bits are computed for each row, which is equivalent to the single-parity check.
  3. In Two-Dimensional Parity check, a block of bits is divided into rows, and the redundant row of bits is added to the whole block.
  4. At the receiving end, the parity bits are compared with the parity bits computed from the received data.

Checksum

  • A Checksum is an error detection technique based on the concept of redundancy. It is divided into two parts:

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Cyclic Redundancy Check

  • CRC is a redundancy error technique used to determine the error. Following are the steps used in CRC for error detection: 1. In CRC technique, a string of n 0s is appended to the data unit, and this n number is less than the number of bits in a predetermined number, known as division which is n+1 bits. 2. Secondly, the newly extended data is divided by a divisor using a process is known a…

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  • Error Control in TCP 

    TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or duplicated.

    TCP provides reliability using error control. Error control includes mechanisms for detecting corrupted segments, lost segments, out-of-order segments, and duplicated segments. Error control also includes a mechanism for correcting errors after they are detected. Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out.

    1. Checksum:

    Each segment includes a checksum field which is used to check for a corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, it is discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost. TCP uses a 16-bit checksum that is mandatory in every segment.

    Process-to-Process Delivery Concepts
    User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
    TCP services
    TCP Segment

    2. Acknowledgment:

    TCP uses acknowledgments to confirm the receipt of data segments. Control segments that carry no data but consume a sequence number are also acknowledged. ACK segments are never acknowledged.

    3. Retransmission:

    The heart of the error control mechanism is the retransmission of segments. When a segment is corrupted, lost, or delayed, it is retransmitted. A segment is retransmitted on two occasions: when a retransmission timer expires or when the sender receives three duplicate ACKs.

    Retransmission After RTO:

    A recent implementation of TCP maintains one retransmission time-out (RTO) timer for all outstanding (sent, but not acknowledged) segments.

    When the timer matures, the earliest outstanding segment is retransmitted even though lack of a received ACK can be due to a delayed segment, a delayed ACK, or a lost acknowledgment. Note that no time-out timer is set for a segment that carries only an acknowledgment. The value of RTO is dynamic in TCP and is updated based on the round-trip time (RTT) of segments. An RTI is the time needed for a segment to reach a destination and for an acknowledgment to be received.

    Retransmission After Three Duplicate ACK Segments:

    The previous rule about retransmission of a segment is sufficient if the value of RTO is not very large. Sometimes, however, one segment is lost and the receiver receives so many out-of-order segments that they cannot be saved (limited buffer size). To avoid this situation, most implementations today follow the three-duplicate-ACKs rule and retransmit the missing segment immediately. This feature is referred to as fast retransmission.

    Out-of-Order Segments:

    When a segment is delayed, lost, or discarded, the segments following that segment arrive out of order. The out-of-order segments are stored temporarily and flag them as out-of-order segments until the missing segment arrives. Note, however, that the out-of-order segments are not delivered to the process. TCP guarantees that data are delivered to the process in order.

    Lost Segment:

    A lost segment and a corrupted segment are treated the same way by the receiver. A lost segment is discarded somewhere in the network; a corrupted segment is discarded by the receiver itself. Both are considered lost.

    Fast Retransmission:

    In this example, If RTO has a higher value and receiver receives the fourth, fifth, and sixth segments, it triggers an acknowledgment. The sender receives four acknowledgments with the same value (three duplicates). Although the timer for segment 3 has not matured yet, the fast transmission requires that segment 3, the segment that is expected by all these acknowledgments, be resent immediately.

    Note that only one segment is retransmitted although four segments are not acknowledged. When the sender receives the retransmitted ACK, it knows that the four segments are safe and sound because acknowledgment is cumulative.

    For Further Reading:

    How To Create a TCP Connection? 

    Flow Control in TCP 

    Back to DCN Questions and Answers

    Table of Contents

    • 1 What Are Data Packets
    • 2 TCP Explained
      • 2.1 TCP Error Correction
      • 2.2 The Pros of Using TCP With OpenVPN
      • 2.3 The Cons of Using OpenVPN With TCP
      • 2.4 Defeating Censorship With OpenVPN Over TCP
    • 3 UDP Explained
      • 3.1 The Pros of Using UDP With OpenVPN
      • 3.2 The Cons of Using OpenVPN With UDP
      • 3.3 Why UDP Is Better for Streaming
    • 4 UDP vs. TCP Differences Summary
    • 5 OpenVPN Over UDP or TCP

    If you’re in the market for a VPN service, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed that OpenVPN is a protocol just about every provider offers. And it’s not surprising.

    OpenVPN is both secure and reliable. It’s an open-source solution which means the underlying code is accessible anytime for inspection by security experts (something they regularly do).

    It’s also a protocol which offers broad cross-platform support (it’s available for just about any device) and is generally easy to configure and work with.

    OpenVPN can use both the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) communication standards. Most VPN providers let you choose between them. But, few explain the OpenVPN TCP vs UDP difference and any advantages one has over the other.

    The function of both standards is to split your data into small transmittable packets. The devil, however, is in the details. How they go about it is quite different.

    Your choice of TCP or UDP can have a very real impact on how well a VPN works in your specific environment and for your specific needs. It’s a good idea to have at least a general understanding of the two technologies.

    To help, here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about TCP, UDP, how they deal with data packets, and which you should choose to get the most out of an OpenVPN VPN connection.

    What Are Data Packets

    Before we dive into the differences between TCP and UDP, it helps to have a rough understanding of how data is transmitted over the internet. It is, after all, at that level where the two standards do things differently.

    When your device sends data over any network, the internet including, the first step in the process is to divide that information into small, manageable parts. These are called data packets.

    Each packet will contain at least the following:

    No matter how the big the overall data is, a typical packet size will only be around 1,000 bytes to 1,500 bytes (1/1000 to 1/666 of a megabyte).

    Breaking large amounts of information into small pieces is what makes communication over the internet reliable. It helps with traffic management and allows different parts of your data to take different network paths to avoid things like network congestion.

    TCP Explained

    TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol, is by far and away the most-used protocol on the internet. Its roots go as far back as 1983.

    The reason TCP has such staying power is its reliability. It comes with an error correcting mechanism built right in.

    Error correction is the main difference between TCP and UDP. On the internet, where network conditions vary wildly from region to region and may change in the blink of an eye, this is a handy feature indeed.

    TCP Error Correction

    At the core of TCP’s error correction is the packet number. Every packet sent has a unique and sequential identifier attached to it.

    The receiver requires data to come in the correct order. Whenever it gets an expected chunk of data, it sends a quick message back to the sender acknowledging that fact.

    If the receiver sees something it doesn’t want or doesn’t understand, it just sits quietly, waiting for the next packet to arrive.

    The sequence number allows the TCP protocol to handle the following issues:

    In addition to a sequence number, every TCP packet also contains a checksum. It’s a mechanism which helps the receiver figure out if the data was somehow corrupted along the way.

    If data was corrupted, much like in the case of a missing packet, the receiver will just not send an acknowledgment and wait for a re-send (hoping that re-send will be correct).

    All these built error handling mechanisms make TCP very well suited to the task of carrying data on what, despite appearances, is actually a pretty unreliable and error-prone internet.

    The Pros of Using TCP With OpenVPN

    Settings your VPN connection to use OpenVPN over TCP gives you the following benefits:

    The Cons of Using OpenVPN With TCP

    With all the robustness of the TCP protocol come several drawbacks. Depending on what you’re using your VPN connection for, these may force you to steer clear of this OpenVPN configuration.

    Defeating Censorship With OpenVPN Over TCP

    Using a VPN configured to run OpenVPN over TCP has one additional benefit which a few of us may find very useful.

    Some governments like censor the internet. They block access to any website or service they see as not aligning with their views, limiting their citizen’s access to information.

    VPNs are often an excellent way to sidestep these censorship efforts, which is why those same governments love to block their usage. As it turns out, one of the best ways to make sure the latter doesn’t happen is to use OpenVPN with TCP.

    Secure websites (those whose URL starts with https://) use a technology called SSL to encrypt data sent between the website server and your device.

    An SSL secure website using the same techology as OpenVPN TCP

    Years ago, SSL was only used by sites where security was of utmost importance. Think banks or online stores.

    Over the last little while, however, that has changed. Today, just about every site uses SSL technology (and if it doesn’t, it probably will soon).

    Because of its prevalence, SSL is pretty much considered unblockable, even by the most oppressive of governments. It’s a cornerstone technology and doing away with it would severely, if not completely, cripple the internet.

    Where things get interesting is that SSL uses the TCP protocol on port 443. OpenVPN, which is built on OpenSSL libraries, can be configured to run TCP on that same port. Many VPN providers let you do this.

    When a VPN uses OpenVPN TCP on port 443, any data sent over the connection looks like regular website SSL traffic, not VPN traffic. The data is also encrypted and hence, can’t be identified. It’s an effective and difficult to block way of hiding VPN use.

    UDP Explained

    UDP, or User Datagram Protocol, is another widely-used internet transmission protocol. It has origins dating back to around the same time as TCP but usually is only used in very specific circumstances.

    The UDP protocol treats data packets in a similar way to TCP, with one significant difference – a near total lack of error correction.

    A UDP packet does not include a sequence number. It contains no built-in mechanism for error correction other than a checksum to ensure a piece of data arrives at its destination uncorrupted.

    Although this makes UDP data transmission more prone to errors, it also makes it much, much quicker than TCP. This is the reason why all the fastest VPN providers pick UDP as the default OpenVPN configuration.

    When you’re streaming video or audio, or need extra low latency for applications like gaming or VoIP, UDP should be your protocol of choice.

    The Pros of Using UDP With OpenVPN

    Configuring OpenVPN to use UDP has several clear benefits. Using it is recommended when:

    The Cons of Using OpenVPN With UDP

    Even though UDP offers a significant speed advantage over TCP, it isn’t always the best choice to use with OpenVPN. Its most notable drawbacks include:

    Why UDP Is Better for Streaming

    Without a doubt, UDP is the recommended protocol to use for video and audio streaming. It’s a better choice than TCP because of the following:

    UDP vs. TCP Differences Summary

    To summarize, here are the major differences between TCP and UDP. There are other, more technical ones, but these are most relevant to selecting the protocol to use with your VPN connection:

    TCP UDP
    Speed Slower Faster
    Reliability High Low
    Error Detection Yes Packet corruption only
    Error Correction Yes No, corrupted packets are discarded
    Congestion Control Yes No
    Applications Web browsing, email, file transfers Audio and video streaming, gaming, VoIP and live broadcasts

    For a more technical comparison of UDP and TCP, which is beyond the scope of this article, please see the video below.

    Every top VPN provider offers you a choice of using OpenVPN with TCP or UDP. Which of the two you should pick ultimately boils down to speed and reliability, and what’s more important to you.

    UDP is better for streaming, gaming, and real-time communication (both audio and video). With these applications, losing a packet here or there is not a big deal. But, having a fast connection and making sure your device doesn’t fall behind too much makes all the difference.

    TCP, on the other hand, works well for accessing static data. If you use your VPN connection to view webpages, send emails, or downloads files, setting OpenVPN to use TCP is the better option. It’s also a more robust choice when you’re trying to defeat government or ISP imposed censorship.

    If you do a bit of everything with your VPN and the OpenVPN TCP vs UDP choice isn’t clear, I suggest you try UDP first. See how things go. If you run into connection or stability issues, you can switch to TCP anytime.

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