In TCP, the data flow is managed by which parameter?

The data flow in TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is primarily managed by the receive window parameter. The receive window specifies the amount of data that can be sent before receiving an acknowledgment from the receiving end. This mechanism is crucial for flow control, as it allows the sender to know how much data the receiver can handle at any given time, thus preventing the sender from overwhelming the receiver with too much data too quickly.

The size of the receive window can dynamically change during a TCP session, enabling the protocol to adapt to varying network conditions and receiver capabilities. This dynamic adjustment helps optimize the overall throughput and efficiency of data transmission.

Other parameters such as connection timeout, retransmission time, and keep-alive interval do not directly manage the flow of data in the same way. Connection timeout deals with the duration to wait for a response before closing a connection, retransmission time is concerned with how long to wait before retransmitting lost packets, and keep-alive interval helps maintain long-lived connections. While these are important for overall TCP operation, they do not specifically control the flow of data between sender and receiver like the receive window does.