Overview
”ACK” stands for Acknowledgment. It’s a part of theIP protocol used in networking. In the context of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), ACK is a flag that is part of the header of TCP segments, used to acknowledge the successful receipt of packets.
When two devices communicate over TCP, they send each other data packets. To ensure reliable delivery, every packet that is received is acknowledged by the recipient. This acknowledgment is done using a TCP segment with the ACK flag set, which tells the sender that their packet was received successfully.
For example, if device A sends a packet to device B, device B will respond with an ACK packet if the packet arrives successfully. This lets device A know that it can continue sending more data. If device A doesn’t receive an ACK, it assumes the packet was lost and sends it again.
ACK is a critical mechanism in TCP’s flow control and error handling, helping to ensure that data is transmitted accurately across networks.