Sliding windows, a technique also known as windowing,
is used by the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as a method
of controlling the flow of packets between two computers or network hosts.
TCP requires that all transmitted data be acknowledged by the receiving
host. Sliding windows is a method by which multiple packets of data can
be affirmed with a single acknowledgment.
TCP includes a memory buffer that sits between the upper application layer
(for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol or File Transfer Protocol) and
the lower layer that receives data (the data link layer in the OSI reference
model). The buffer allows TCP to receive and process data independently
of the upper application. In other words, TCP can use this buffer space
to "read ahead" while the upper application processes the data
at its own pace.
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