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Discussion on: Explain TCP like I'm five

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Tamir Bahar

TCP is all fun and games until you start doing SACK (Selective ACK).

I am going to start handing you boxes. The boxes are numbered.
Your role is to drop the boxes into a hole in ground in order, based in the numbering.
When I give you a box, you read the number back to me.
If you are missing a number (I didn't give you that box, but I gave you a later one), tell me which is the one I gave you, and which is missing.
Keep doing that for arbitrarily many boxes.
If the boxes get too heavy, or if you feel it is a good idea, you can throw away the out-of-order boxes, and tell me which ones you kept.
I will try and only hand you boxes that you need, but I might send you duplicates now and then if you did not reply fast enough.