How does the Transport Layer control the flow of data?

How does the Transport Layer control the flow of data?

• A. Through a process called flow control, which prevents overwhelming the receiver.
• B. By routing packets through routers.
• C. By encrypting data before transmission.
• D. By adjusting the physical layer bitrate.

Answer: (A)

Flow control at the Transport Layer is about pacing data so the receiver isn’t overwhelmed. In protocols like TCP, the receiver tells the sender how much data it can buffer at the moment by advertising a window size (the receive window). The sender then transmits only up to that amount of data and waits for acknowledgments. As the receiver processes data and frees buffer space, it updates the window, allowing more data to be sent. This sliding-window mechanism keeps the data flow steady and prevents loss or overflow, making the end-to-end transfer reliable. Routing packets, encryption, and changing the physical bitrate happen at other layers or functions that aren’t about the Transport Layer’s flow control.

Flow control at the Transport Layer is about pacing data so the receiver isn’t overwhelmed. In protocols like TCP, the receiver tells the sender how much data it can buffer at the moment by advertising a window size (the receive window). The sender then transmits only up to that amount of data and waits for acknowledgments. As the receiver processes data and frees buffer space, it updates the window, allowing more data to be sent. This sliding-window mechanism keeps the data flow steady and prevents loss or overflow, making the end-to-end transfer reliable.

Routing packets, encryption, and changing the physical bitrate happen at other layers or functions that aren’t about the Transport Layer’s flow control.