Transport layer

The OSI model
7	Application layer
6	Presentation layer
5	Session layer
4	Transport layer
3	Network layer
2	Data link layer LLC sublayer MAC sublayer
1	Physical layer

Internet protocol suite
Application layer
BGP DHCP DHCPv6 DNS FTP HTTP IMAP IRC LDAP MGCP NNTP NTP POP RIP RPC RTP RTSP SIP SMTP SNMP SOCKS SSH Telnet TLS/SSL XMPP (more)
Transport layer
TCP UDP DCCP SCTP RSVP ECN (more)
Internet layer
IP IPv4 IPv6 ICMP ICMPv6 IGMP IPsec (more)
Link layer
ARP/InARP NDP OSPF Tunnels L2TP PPP Media access control Ethernet DSL ISDN FDDI (more)

In computer networking, the transport layer or layer 4 provides end-to-end communication services for applications^[1] within a layered architecture of network components and protocols. The transport layer provides convenient services such as connection-oriented data stream support, reliability, flow control, and multiplexing.

Transport layers are contained in both the TCP/IP model (RFC 1122),^[2] which is the foundation of the Internet, and the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model of general networking. The definitions of the transport layer are slightly different in these two models. This article primarily refers to the TCP/IP model, in which TCP is largely for a convenient application programming interface to internet hosts, as opposed to the OSI-model definition of the transport layer.

The most well-known transport protocol is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). It lent its name to the title of the entire Internet Protocol Suite, TCP/IP. It is used for connection-oriented transmissions, whereas the connectionless User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is used for simpler messaging transmissions. TCP is the more complex protocol, due to its stateful design incorporating reliable transmission and data stream services. Other prominent protocols in this group are the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) and the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP).

Contents 1 Services 2 Analysis 3 Protocols 4 Comparison of transport-layer protocols 5 Comparison of OSI transport protocols 6 References

Services

There are many services that can be optionally provided by a transport-layer protocol, and different protocols may or may not implement them.

• Connection-oriented communication: Interpreting the connection as a data stream can provide many benefits to applications. It is normally easier to deal with than the underlying connection-less models, such as the Transmission Control Protocol's underlying Internet Protocol model of datagrams.
• Byte orientation: Rather than processing the messages in the underlying communication system format, it is often easier for an application to process the data stream as a sequence of bytes. This simplification helps applications work with various underlying message formats.
• Same order delivery: The network layer doesn't generally guarantee that packets of data will arrive in the same order that they were sent, but often this is a desirable feature. This is usually done through the use of segment numbering, with the receiver passing them to the application in order. This can cause head-of-line blocking.
• Reliability: Packets may be lost during transport due to network congestion and errors. By means of an error detection code, such as a checksum, the transport protocol may check that the data is not corrupted, and verify correct receipt by sending an ACK or NACK message to the sender. Automatic repeat request schemes may be used to retransmit lost or corrupted data.
• Flow control: The rate of data transmission between two nodes must sometimes be managed to prevent a fast sender from transmitting more data than can be supported by the receiving data buffer, causing a buffer overrun. This can also be used to improve efficiency by reducing buffer underrun.
• Congestion avoidance: Congestion control can control traffic entry into a telecommunications network, so as to avoid congestive collapse by attempting to avoid oversubscription of any of the processing or link capabilities of the intermediate nodes and networks and taking resource reducing steps, such as reducing the rate of sending packets. For example, automatic repeat requests may keep the network in a congested state; this situation can be avoided by adding congestion avoidance to the flow control, including slow-start. This keeps the bandwidth consumption at a low level in the beginning of the transmission, or after packet retransmission.
• Multiplexing: Ports can provide multiple endpoints on a single node. For example, the name on a postal address is a kind of multiplexing, and distinguishes between different recipients of the same location. Computer applications will each listen for information on their own ports, which enables the use of more than one network service at the same time. It is part of the transport layer in the TCP/IP model, but of the session layer in the OSI model.

Analysis

The transport layer is responsible for delivering data to the appropriate application process on the host computers. This involves statistical multiplexing of data from different application processes, i.e. forming data packets, and adding source and destination port numbers in the header of each transport-layer data packet. Together with the source and destination IP address, the port numbers constitutes a network socket, i.e. an identification address of the process-to-process communication. In the OSI model, this function is supported by the session layer.

Some transport-layer protocols, for example TCP, but not UDP, support virtual circuits, i.e. provide connection oriented communication over an underlying packet oriented datagram network. A byte-stream is delivered while hiding the packet mode communication for the application processes. This involves connection establishment, dividing of the data stream into packets called segments, segment numbering and reordering of out-of order data.

Finally, some transport-layer protocols, for example TCP, but not UDP, provide end-to-end reliable communication, i.e. error recovery by means of error detecting code and automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocol. The ARQ protocol also provides flow control, which may be combined with congestion avoidance.

UDP is a very simple protocol, and does not provide virtual circuits, nor reliable communication, delegating these functions to the application program. UDP packets are called datagrams, rather than segments.

TCP is used for many protocols, including HTTP web browsing and email transfer. UDP may be used for multicasting and broadcasting, since retransmissions are not possible to a large amount of hosts. UDP typically gives higher throughput and shorter latency, and is therefore often used for real-time multimedia communication where packet loss occasionally can be accepted, for example IP-TV and IP-telephony, and for online computer games.

The OSI model
7	Application layer
6	Presentation layer
5	Session layer
4	Transport layer
3	Network layer
2	Data link layer LLC sublayer MAC sublayer
1	Physical layer

In many non-IP-based networks, for example X.25, Frame Relay and ATM, the connection oriented communication is implemented at network layer or data link layer rather than the transport layer. In X.25, in telephone network modems and in wireless communication systems, reliable node-to-node communication is implemented at lower protocol layers.

The OSI model defines five classes of transport protocols: TP0, providing the least error recovery, to TP4, which is designed for less reliable networks.

Protocols

The exact definition of what qualifies as a transport-layer protocol is not firm. The following is a short list:

• ATP, AppleTalk Transaction Protocol
• CUDP, Cyclic UDP
• DCCP, Datagram Congestion Control Protocol
• FCP, Fiber Channel Protocol
• IL, IL Protocol
• NBF, NetBIOS Frames protocol
• RDP, Reliable Datagram Protocol
• SCTP, Stream Control Transmission Protocol
• SPX, Sequenced Packet Exchange
• SST, Structured Stream Transport
• TCP, Transmission Control Protocol
• UDP, User Datagram Protocol
• UDP Lite
• µTP, Micro Transport Protocol

Comparison of transport-layer protocols

Feature Name	UDP	UDP Lite	TCP	SCTP	DCCP	RUDP
Packet header size	8 Bytes	8 Bytes	20-60 Bytes	12 Bytes	12 or 16 bytes
Transport-layer packet entity	Datagram	Datagram	Segment	Datagram	Datagram	Datagram
Connection oriented	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Reliable transport	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Unreliable transport	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Preserve message boundary	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unsure
Ordered delivery	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Unordered delivery	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data checksum	Optional	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unsure
Checksum size (bits)	16	16	16	32	16	Unsure
Partial checksum	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Path MTU	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unsure
Flow control	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Congestion control	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unsure
ECN support	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple streams	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Multi-homing support	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Bundling / Nagle	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Unsure
NAT friendly[3]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Comparison of OSI transport protocols

The OSI model defines five classes of connection-mode transport protocols designated class 0 (TP0) to class 4 (TP4). Class 0 contains no error recovery, and was designed for use on network layers that provide error-free connections. Class 4 is closest to TCP, although TCP contains functions, such as the graceful close, which OSI assigns to the session layer. All OSI connection-mode protocol classes provide expedited data and preservation of record boundaries. Detailed characteristics of the classes are shown in the following table:^[4]

Service	TP0	TP1	TP2	TP3	TP4
Connection oriented network	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connectionless network	No	No	No	No	Yes
Concatenation and separation	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Segmentation and reassembly	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Error Recovery	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Reinitiate connection (if an excessive number of PDUs are unacknowledged)	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
multiplexing and demultiplexing over a single virtual circuit	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Explicit flow control	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Retransmission on timeout	No	No	No	No	Yes
Reliable Transport Service	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

References