I understand that the client and the server are connected after client receives SYN ACK messages from the server during 3 way handshake and sending ACK messages to the Server. After they are connected, when the client sends the other messages to the server, what happens if that messages arrives at the server before the ACK message that client sent when doing the 3 way handshake?
what happens if that messages arrives at the server before the ACK message that client sent when doing the 3 way handshake?
ACK is just the flag in the TCP header together with the sequence number of the latest received data. It can be contained in an empty packet (i.e. no payload, just TCP header) but also in a packet with payload. It does not matter if a specific packet with an ACK is received as long as an ACK covering the data is received at all.
This means it is sufficient if the initial data send by the client cover the final ACK for the TCP handshake. In fact there is not even a need to send a standalone ACK (without payload) from the client at all to finish the TCP handshake but the client can start sending data as soon as the client has received the SYN and ACK from the server.
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A tcp connection has a client and a server, my question is will the server start a timer when it sends an ACK packet to the client? and will the server retransmit that ACK packet if the packet gets timeout or lost?
will the server start a timer when it sends an ACK packet to the client?
The server will not control if the ACK was received by the client. If the client does not receive an ACK for transmitted data it will assume that either the data or the ACK to the data got lost. In this case it will simply resend the unacknowledged data - which will result in the server sending another ACK for the same data.
I am using a simulator. in this simulator when a client sends a tcp syn request to a server and server responds it with RST packet (when the requesting port is close) the same client sends tcp syn retransmission to the same server (and the same port) for four times. i want to know real networks do the same? i mean in real networks if a client sends a tcp syn to a server and recieve RST , do that client sends tcp syn retransmission to that server for four times?
It totally depends on the client implementation. If you program a client to respond to a server's RST with a SYN 4 times, then that's what it will do. It might be that the server is sending an RST because it's detecting a SYN flood (if you keep on sending SYNs unsuccessfully, eventually heuristics will class it as such).
You may want to play with Scapy so you can easily write the client for these kinds of questions.
The project I am working on defines an application-level protocol over TCP, for passing messages between client and server. It defines an ACK message (with message ID) that is sent by the client to server when it receives a message.
I am wondering if such a message is redundant over TCP, if the only purpose it serves is to notify the server that the message is received?
Is there any protocol over TCP that defines an ACK message?
when a TCP client wants to establish a tcp connection with a tcp server
it needs to send SYN and then ACK
while tcp server only sends SYN/ACK
so they are different
but , after the 3_way handshaking,
is this connection symmetric, namely, are TCP client and server in equal status
for example, after the 3-way handshake, usually the client send packet first,
can TCP server send packet first?
No, the procedure is not different at all, but instead of sending a SYN then an ACK in two different packets, the servers concatenate them by sending them via a single packet!
In the other hand, remember always that the client/server nomenclature is relative. The server is the party that remains in listening mode, while the client is the party that initiates the connection ...
After the establishment of the connection, both parties are equivalent (same status as you said: ESTABLISHED). For that reason, both can send the FIN statement to close the connection ...
After the connection is established, both ends are indeed "symmetric". Who sends first is decided by the underlying protocol and differes amongst them.
For example, HTTP starts with the GET <path> HTTP/1.0 command, while other protocols let the server give a greeting line first, and only then the client sends its request.
So in general, both ends are free to send their stuff first.
Connect function returns after sending the last ACK(3rd segment of 3-way handshake of initiating TCP connection). What happens if this 3rd segment is lost because listen is still waiting for ACK at server but there is no one at client to send that ACK again ?
If the client sends its ACK with a data packet, and it gets lost, the client will notice that the data hasn't been ACKd by the server and resend the packet.
If the client sends its ACK in a separate packet, and it gets lost, the server will notice that the SYN/ACK hasn't been ACKd by the client and resend the packet. Client will respond by resending the ACK.
Whether the application's connect call is still blocking at that time doesn't matter, since the ACKing is done by the OS's TCP/IP implementation.