Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) represents the Transport Layer in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. The Transport Layer is responsible for end-to-end connectivity and reliability. Specifically, TCP ensures that the data is transferred and guarantees that the data is received in the same sequence in which it was sent. Hence, it is more reliable but slower than User Datagram Protocol (UDP). TCP is suitable for applications like file transfer, email and OPC.

TCP is typically used in combination with the Internet Protocol (IP). TCP simplifies the task of writing network applications.

OPC is based on DCOM, which typically uses TCP/IP for the transport layer.

See also: IP, TCP/IP, UDP