Definition: The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a primary part of the TCP/IP set of protocols which forms the basis of communications on the Internet. TCP is responsible for breaking large data into smaller chunks of data called packets. TCP assigns each packet a sequence number and then passes them on to be transmitted to their destination. Because of how the Internet is set up every packet may not take the same path to get to its destination. TCP has the responsibility at the destination end of reassembling the packets in the correct sequence and performing error-checking to ensure that the complete data maessage arrived intact.
Also Known As: Transmission Control Protocol