TCP huanzisha muunganisho kwa 3-way handshake, huufunga kwa 4-way teardown, na huweka data ikitiririka salama kwa flow control na congestion control. Handshake husawazisha nambari ya mfuatano (sequence number) ya kuanzia ya kila upande ili wote waweze kufuatilia na kuthibitisha (ACK) kila byte:
3-WAY HANDSHAKE (open) 4-WAY TEARDOWN (close)
Client Server Client Server
│──── SYN ───────▶│ │──── FIN ───────▶│
│◀── SYN, ACK ────│ │◀──── ACK ───────│
│──── ACK ───────▶│ │◀──── FIN ───────│
│ connected │ │──── ACK ───────▶│
