Forcing Data Delivery

Computers often experience delays where the user experiences long periods of wait time. From keystrokes to applications, the user experiences poor performance where character lines are being outputted slowly on the window screen. Instead of seeing keystrokes instantly, the user waits a second or more for one character to be displayed onto the screen, and a series of characters within a greater length of time. Also, opening up applications or programs might also come in conflict because instead of instant access, the user waits long periods of time in order to access those applications of programs. Thus, we use a term called "Forcing Data Delivery" to help speed up the transfer of data into the computer's layers to provide a faster access and display on the screen.

It is a term that is used when TCP uses a PUSH operation to force the delivery of octets into the stream without waiting for the buffers to be filled. However, aside from just forcing the TCP to send out segments, it also gives a request to the TCP to set the PSH bit in the segment code field to ensure that data will be delivered on the application layer of the receiving end. Therefore, whenever a keystroke is made, a push function is created for each one in order to prevent any further delays from hundreds of other keystrokes. Also, application programs use this function to force output to be displayed and sent after writing a character or a line of characters. Thus, by forcing the data to be sent, delays and wait time is decreased and instant output is made on the computer.

See: Transmission Control Protocol#Forcing Data Delivery

References

* Comer, Douglas E. "Internetworking with TCP/IP". 5th edition. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2006.