Reliable Data Transfer

<p>Reliable Data Transfer is a topic in computer networking concerning the transfer of data across unreliable channels.  Unreliability is one of the drawbacks of <a href="/facts/Packet_switching/olDlDP1R">packet switched</a> networks such as the modern internet, as <a href="/facts/Packet_loss/6fuIcFHk">packet loss</a> can occur for a variety of reasons, and delivery of packets is not guaranteed to happen in the order that the packets were sent.  Therefore, in order to create long-term data streams over the internet, techniques have been developed to provide reliability, which are generally implemented in the <a href="/facts/Transport_layer/UmIGUCeK">Transport layer</a> of the internet protocol suite.  
</p><p>In instructional materials, the topic is often presented in the form of theoretical example protocols which are themselves referred to as "RDT", in order to introduce students to the problems and solutions encountered in Transport layer protocols such as the <a href="/facts/Transmission_Control_Protocol/WW4sPrt9">Transmission Control Protocol</a>. These sources often describe a pseudo-<a href="/facts/API/GMlN4vUr">API</a> and include <a href="/facts/Finite-state_machine/GMusWd0a">Finite-state machine</a> diagrams to illustrate how such a protocol might be implemented, as well as a version history.  These details are generally consistent between sources, yet are often left uncited, so the origin of this theoretical RDT protocol is unclear.
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Reliable Data Transfer