In: Computer Science
Briefly explain the Flow Control mechanism in Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
Flow Control is the process of managing the data rate of transmission so that sender doesn't overwhelm receiver.
in above diagram Application A is the sender and application B is the reciever. Both have finite buffer it means that they can store limited amounts of packets in their buffer. So when Application A is transmitting data at the rate higher than the rate at which Application B can process buffer of Application B will be filled eventually and after that any packet send by appliaction A will be lost (As there is no space in buffer to store them).
Flow Control mechanism in TCP: TCP implements flow control by increasing/decreasing window size as required.
Advertisment window mechanism: explained in the figure below.