What Does Segmentation Change?

About this interactive

Segmentation, in this lesson, means breaking the data you send into smaller pieces. (Segmenting a network, splitting it into smaller parts, is a different idea with the same word.) A network line is shared. If a large file goes across as one big message, nothing else can use the line until it finishes. And if something goes wrong near the end, say 99% of the way through, the whole message has to be sent again. Broken into segments, the pieces of many conversations take turns on the line, so everyone keeps moving. If one segment is lost, that segment is sent again; the ones that already arrived stay. A segmented transfer has three parts: the two devices exchange messages to set up a connection, the data is sent as smaller pieces, and the connection is finished once everything has been sent. The receiver puts the pieces back together into the original message.

What you'll learn

Predict what happens to a shared line, and to a failed transfer, when a large message is sent whole and when it is broken into segments
Describe the steps of a segmented transfer: set up a connection, send the message as smaller pieces, then finish the connection once everything has been sent

Aligned to

CompTIA Network+

1.1 Explain concepts related to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model.

Cisco CCNA

1.5 Compare TCP to UDP

Cisco CCST Networking

1.1 Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks

1.5 Describe common network applications and protocols

ISC2 CC

4.1 Understand network security

Key terms

Segmentation: The process of dividing a large message or data stream into smaller pieces called segments before transmission across a network, allowing multiple devices to share the medium and enabling parallel transfer. TCP performs segmentation at Layer 4 and numbers the segments so the receiver can reassemble them in the correct order.
Segment: A unit of data at the TCP transport layer, created by breaking larger data into smaller chunks for transmission and reassembly.
Bandwidth: The maximum rate of data transfer across a network path, typically measured in bits per second.
Retransmission: The process by which TCP resends segments when the receiver detects missing data based on expected sequence numbers.

Topics

Segmentation Segment Bandwidth Retransmission Interactive Predict

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