Transport Layer Protocols

The transport layer is the fourth layer in the OSI model

and the second layer in the TCP/IP model. The transport
layer provides with end to end connection between the
source and the destination and reliable delivery of the
services. Therefore transport layer is known as the end-
to-end layer. The transport layer takes the services from
its upward layer which is the application layer and
provides it to the network layer. Segment is the unit of
data encapsulation at the transport layer.
In this article,
we are going to discuss all the important aspects of
Transport Layer Protocol which include:

Functions of Transport Layer protocol,

characteristics of TLP, UDP & UDP
Segemnts and their Advantages and
Disadvantages,

TCP & TCP Segements and their

Advantages and Disadvantages,

]SCTP and its Advantages &

Disadvantages.
Functions of Transport Layer
 The process to process delivery
 End-to-end connection between devices
 Multiplexing and Demultiplexing
 Data integrity and error Correction
 Congestion Control
 Flow Control
Characteristics of Transport Layer
Protocol
 The two protocols that make up the transport layer are
TCP and UDP.
 A datagram is sent by the IP protocol at the network
layer from a source host to a destination host.
 These days, an operating system can support
environments with multiple users and processes; a
programme under execution is referred to as a
process.
  A source process is transmitting a process to a
destination process when a host sends a message to
another host. Certain connections to certain ports,
referred to as protocol ports, are defined by the
transport layer protocols.
 A positive integer address, consisting of 16 bits,
defines each port.
Transport Layer Protocols
The transport layer is represented majorly by TCP and
UDP protocols. Today almost all operating systems
support multiprocessing multi-user environments. This
transport layer protocol provides connections to the
individual ports. These ports are known as protocol ports.
Transport layer protocols work above the IP protocols
and deliver the data packets from IP serves to destination
port and from the originating port to destination IP
services. Below are the protocols used at the transport
layer.
1. UDP
UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. User Datagram
Protocol provides a nonsequential transmission of data. It
is a connectionless transport protocol. UDP protocol is
used in applications where the speed and size of data
transmitted is considered as more important than the
security and reliability. User Datagram is defined as a
packet produced by User Datagram Protocol. UDP
protocol adds checksum error control, transport level
addresses, and information of length to the data received
from the layer above it. Services provided by User
Datagram Protocol(UDP) are connectionless service,
faster delivery of messages, checksum, and process-to-
process communication.

UDP Segment
While the TCP header can range from 20 to 60 bytes, the
UDP header is a fixed, basic 8 bytes. All required header
information is contained in the first 8 bytes, with data
making up the remaining portion. Because UDP port
number fields are 16 bits long, the range of possible port
numbers is defined as 0 to 65535, with port 0 being
reserved.
 UDP
 Source Port: Source Port is a 2 Byte long field used
to identify the port number of the source.
 Destination Port: This 2-byte element is used to
specify the packet's destination port.
 Length: The whole length of a UDP packet, including
the data and header. The field has sixteen bits.
 Cheksum: The checksum field is two bytes long. The
data is padded with zero octets at the end (if needed)
to create a multiple of two octets. It is the 16-bit one's
complement of the one's complement sum of the UDP
header, the pseudo-header containing information
from the IP header, and the data.
Advantages of UDP
 UDP also provides multicast and broadcast
transmission of data.
 UDP protocol is preferred more for small transactions
such as DNS lookup.
 It is a connectionless protocol, therefore there is no
compulsion to have a connection-oriented network.
 UDP provides fast delivery of messages.
Disadvantages of UDP
 In UDP protocol there is no guarantee that the packet
is delivered.
  UDP protocol suffers from worse packet loss.
 UDP protocol has no congestion control mechanism.
 UDP protocol does not provide the sequential
transmission of data.
2. TCP
TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. TCP
protocol provides transport layer services to applications.
TCP protocol is a connection-oriented protocol. A
secured connection is being established between the
sender and the receiver. For a generation of a secured
connection, a virtual circuit is generated between the
sender and the receiver. The data transmitted by TCP
protocol is in the form of continuous byte streams. A
unique sequence number is assigned to each byte. With
the help of this unique number, a positive
acknowledgment is received from receipt. If the
acknowledgment is not received within a specific period
the data is retransmitted to the specified destination.
TCP Segment
A TCP segment's header may have 20–60 bytes. The
options take about 40 bytes. A header consists of 20
bytes by default, although it can contain up to 60 bytes.

 Source Port Address: The port address of the

programme sending the data segment is stored in the
16-bit field known as the source port address.
 Destination Port Address: The port address of the
application running on the host receiving the data
segment is stored in the destination port address, a 16-
bit field.
 Sequence Number: The sequence number, or the
byte number of the first byte sent in that specific
segment, is stored in a 32-bit field. At the receiving
end, it is used to put the message back together once it
has been received out of sequence.
 Acknowledgement Number : The acknowledgement
number, or the byte number that the recipient
anticipates receiving next, is stored in a 32-bit field
called the acknowledgement number. It serves as a
confirmation that the earlier bytes were successfully
received.
 Header Length (HLEN): This 4-bit field stores the
number of 4-byte words in the TCP header, indicating
how long the header is. For example, if the header is
20 bytes (the minimum length of the TCP header),
this field will store 5 because 5 x 4 = 20, and if the
header is 60 bytes (the maximum length), it will store
15 because 15 x 4 = 60. As a result, this field's value
is always between 5 and 15.
 Control flags: These are six 1-bit control bits that
regulate flow control, method of transfer, connection
abortion, termination, and establishment. They serve
the following purposes:
o Urgent: This pointer is legitimate

o ACK: The acknowledgement number (used in

cumulative acknowledgement cases) is valid.

o PSH: Push request

o RST: Restart the link.

o SYN: Sequence number synchronisation

o FIN: Cut off the communication

 o Window size: This parameter provides the
sender TCP's window size in bytes.
 Checksum: The checksum for error control is stored
in this field. Unlike UDP, it is required for TCP.
 Urgent pointer: This field is used to point to data
that must urgently reach the receiving process as soon
as possible. It is only valid if the URG control flag is
set. To obtain the byte number of the final urgent
byte, the value of this field is appended to the
sequence number.
Advantages of TCP
 TCP supports multiple routing protocols.
 TCP protocol operates independently of that of the
operating system.
 TCP protocol provides the features of error control
and flow control.
 TCP provides a connection-oriented protocol and
provides the delivery of data.
Disadvantages of TCP
 TCP protocol cannot be used for broadcast or
multicast transmission.
 TCP protocol has no block boundaries.
 No clear separation is being offered by TCP protocol
between its interface, services, and protocols.
 In TCP/IP replacement of protocol is difficult.
3. SCTP
SCTP stands for Stream Control Transmission Protocol.
SCTP is a connection-oriented protocol. Stream Control
Transmission Protocol transmits the data from sender to
receiver in full duplex mode. SCTP is a unicast protocol
that provides with point to point-to-point connection and
uses different hosts for reaching the destination. SCTP
protocol provides a simpler way to build a connection
over a wireless network. SCTP protocol provides a
reliable transmission of data. SCTP provides a reliable
and easier telephone conversation over the internet.
SCTP protocol supports the feature of multihoming ie. it
can establish more than one connection path between the
two points of communication and does not depend on the
IP layer. SCTP protocol also ensures security by not
allowing the half-open connections.

Advantages of SCTP
 SCTP provides a full duplex connection. It can send
and receive the data simultaneously.
 SCTP protocol possesses the properties of both TCP
and UDP protocol.
 SCTP protocol does not depend on the IP layer.
 SCTP is a secure protocol.
Disadvantages of SCTP
 To handle multiple streams simultaneously the
applications need to be modified accordingly.
 The transport stack on the node needs to be changed
for the SCTP protocol.
 Modification is required in applications if SCTP is
used instead of TCP or UDP protocol.