Positive Acknowledgment and Retransmission (PAR)

A simple transport protocol might implement a reliability-and-flow-control technique where the
source sends one packet, starts a timer, and waits for an acknowledgment before sending a new
packet. If the acknowledgment is not received before the timer expires, the source retransmits the
packet. Such a technique is called positive acknowledgment and retransmission (PAR).
By assigning each packet a sequence number, PAR enables hosts to track lost or duplicate packets
caused by network delays that result in premature retransmission. The sequence numbers are sent
back in the acknowledgments so that the acknowledgments can be tracked.
PAR is an inefficient use of bandwidth, however, because a host must wait for an acknowledgment
before sending a new packet, and only one packet can be sent at a time.