CLOSE is an operation meaning "I have no more data to send." The notion of closing a full-duplex connection is subject to ambiguous interpretation, of course, since it may not be obvious how to treat the receiving side of the connection. We have chosen to treat CLOSE in a simplex fashion. The user who CLOSEs may continue to RECEIVE until he is told that the other side has CLOSED also. Thus, a program could initiate several SENDs followed by a CLOSE, and then continue to RECEIVE until signaled that a RECEIVE failed because the other side has CLOSED. We assume that the TCP will signal a user, even if no RECEIVEs are outstanding, that the other side has closed, so the user can terminate his side gracefully. A TCP will reliably deliver all buffers SENT before the connection was CLOSED so a user who expects no data in return need only wait to hear the connection was CLOSED successfully to know that all his data was received at the destination TCP. Users must keep reading connections they close for sending until the TCP says no more data. There are essentially three cases:
1) The user initiates by telling the TCP to CLOSE the connection
2) The remote TCP initiates by sending a FIN control signal
3) Both users CLOSE simultaneously
Case 1: Local user initiates the close
In this case, a FIN segment can be constructed and placed on the
outgoing segment queue. No further SENDs from the user will be
accepted by the TCP, and it enters the FIN-WAIT-1 state. RECEIVEs
are allowed in this state. All segments preceding and including FIN
will be retransmitted until acknowledged. When the other TCP has
both acknowledged the FIN and sent a FIN of its own, the first TCP
can ACK this FIN. Note that a TCP receiving a FIN will ACK but not
send its own FIN until its user has CLOSED the connection also.
Case 2: TCP receives a FIN from the network
If an unsolicited FIN arrives from the network, the receiving TCP
can ACK it and tell the user that the connection is closing. The
user will respond with a CLOSE, upon which the TCP can send a FIN to
the other TCP after sending any remaining data. The TCP then waits
until its own FIN is acknowledged whereupon it deletes the
connection. If an ACK is not forthcoming, after the user timeout
the connection is aborted and the user is told.
Case 3: both users close simultaneously
A simultaneous CLOSE by users at both ends of a connection causes
FIN segments to be exchanged. When all segments preceding the FINs
have been processed and acknowledged, each TCP can ACK the FIN it
has received. Both will, upon receiving these ACKs, delete the
connection.
TCP A TCP B
1. ESTABLISHED ESTABLISHED
2. (Close)
FIN-WAIT-1 --> <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> --> CLOSE-WAIT
3. FIN-WAIT-2 <-- <SEQ=300><ACK=101><CTL=ACK> <-- CLOSE-WAIT
4. (Close)
TIME-WAIT <-- <SEQ=300><ACK=101><CTL=FIN,ACK> <-- LAST-ACK
5. TIME-WAIT --> <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> --> CLOSED
6. (2 MSL)
CLOSED
Normal Close Sequence
Figure 13.
TCP A TCP B
1. ESTABLISHED ESTABLISHED
2. (Close) (Close)
FIN-WAIT-1 --> <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> ... FIN-WAIT-1
<-- <SEQ=300><ACK=100><CTL=FIN,ACK> <--
... <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> -->
3. CLOSING --> <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> ... CLOSING
<-- <SEQ=301><ACK=101><CTL=ACK> <--
... <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> -->
4. TIME-WAIT TIME-WAIT
(2 MSL) (2 MSL)
CLOSED CLOSED
Simultaneous Close Sequence
Figure 14.