CS 2204 Learning Journal Unit 7

During TCP communications, the role of TCP flags is to indicate the particular states (Kumar et

al., 2018). The flags are necessary for controlling the handling of specific connections and

troubleshooting. The TCP header houses the different flag types. These flags terminate

connections, transmit data, and trigger connections.

When establishing a reliable network, TCP utilizes 3-way handshakes (Kfoury, 2018). Full-

duplex is a term that can describe the network connection as both sides acknowledge (ACK) and

synchronize (SYN) each other. ACK and SYN form some of the frequently used flags in addition

to FIN.

Synchronization (SYN) applies in the three-way handshake process or during the initial stages of

connection building between hosts. The SYN flag is contained only in the initial packet from the

receiver and the sender. It is significant since it generates the SYN sequence number, which

informs the opposite end of the sequence number that should be accepted.

The question refers to where the LISTENING port is missing during the SYN request process.

Under normal circumstances, following the client sending the initial packet, the server enters a

listening mode to identify the specific port, followed by the SYN-ACK packet response, thereby

acknowledging the SYN message request from the client. A reply is provided by the client

completing the establishment of the connection. A situation can occur where the server acquires

the SYN message but fails to listen to the matching port. The result will be a refusal of

connection using the RST flag accompanied by the “Connection Refused” error message

(Walelgne. The cause of this error caused by trying to connect to the wrong port, an offline
server, or listening to the wrong port. This error correction ensures that the server is online and

that the server listens to the correct port.

References

Kfoury, E. F., Crichigno, J., Bou-Harb, E., Khoury, D., & Srivastava, G. (2019, July). Enabling

TCP pacing using programmable data plane switches. In 2019 42nd International

Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP) (pp. 273-277). IEEE.

Kumar, P., Tripathi, M., Nehra, A., Conti, M., & Lal, C. (2018). SAFETY: Early detection and

mitigation of TCP SYN flood utilizing entropy in SDN. IEEE Transactions on Network

and Service Management, 15(4), 1545-1559.

Walelgne, E. A., Kim, S., Bajpai, V., Neumeier, S., Manner, J., & Ott, J. (2018, May). Factors

affecting the performance of web flows in cellular networks. In 2018 IFIP Networking

Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops (pp. 73-81). IEEE.