Q2. Describe the TCP protocol. How is it related to the IP Protocol?

Answer:

TCP is Transmission Control Protocol. Wikipedia (2009) describes that the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is so central that the entire suite is often referred to as "TCP/IP". Whereas IP handles lower-level transmissions from computer to computer as a message makes its way across the Internet, TCP operates at a higher level, concerned only with the two end systems, for example a Web browser and a Web server. In particular, TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery of a stream of bytes from one program on one computer to another program on another computer. Besides the Web, other common applications of TCP include e-mail and file transfer. Among its management tasks, TCP controls message size, the rate at which messages are exchanged, and network traffic congestion. Thus, TCP is a connection-oriented protocol as the circuit for the communication should be setup and maintained.

How is it related to the IP Protocol?
TCP and IP are both in IP Protocol Suite. Although TCP is the connection-oriented protocol and IP is the connectionless protocol, the former handles the high level communition for the application like, web, email & file transfer and the latter handles the low level communication in physical media. There are 5 layers in IP protocol Suite formed by IETF. The layers are Application, Transfer, Internet, Network Interface, Physical in sequence from the top to the bottom. TCP is related to IP Protocol when TCP mainly operates in Application, Transfer, Internet Layers and IP solely operates in Network Interface and Physical layers.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia (2009). "Transmission Control Protocol". Wikipeddia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-14th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_Control_Protocol