Subject: [tcpm] TCP error recovery and efficiency

From: Jamal Cynthia <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:02:58 -0700 (PDT)

TCP error recovery is needed because packet losses can occur at network layer E.g buffer overflos and also some link layers may not be reliable.TCP uses a timeout mechanism for packet retransmission which are timeout calculation and fast retransmission.
TCP error-control does have some energy conserving  capabilities, in response to segment drops it reduces its window size and  therefore conserves transmission  effort.The errorrecovery mechanism however is not always efficient,especially when the error pattern changes since packet loss is invariably interpreted by the protocol as resulting from congestion.For example,when relatively infrequent random or short burst errors occur,the sender backs off and then applies a graduated increase to its reduced window size.