--- layout: post title: "Lecture: Networking and TCP" tags: Lecture description: Slides from a lecture on various networking topics, including how TCP actually works --- In the same vein as my [previous post](/2016/04/25/stack-smashing.html), I'd like to share another lecture I wrote for the honors section of the [systems programming course](https://cs.illinois.edu/courses/profile/CS241) I am a TA for. It is essentially a taste of some deeper networking concepts than we get to cover in the regular section. This includes a fairly substantial discussion of how TCP works beneath the scenes, a topic I continue to be fascinated by. One of the benefits of writing a lecture is that it forces you to work through your own conceptual understanding of a topic and patch holes that you won't necessarily realize exist in the first place. I can definitely say this applied here. I especially enjoy when students ask clarifying questions about some of the finer details (for this lecture, I had one about specifics of reliable transmission) as we can see what limitations the material has and where it can be improved. [You can also view the slides directly](/static/content/tcp.pdf).