Which of the following is a characteristic of TCP?

One of the defining characteristics of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is its ability to provide error recovery. This aspect is crucial for applications requiring reliable data transmission, such as file transfers and web page loading. TCP achieves this reliability by establishing a connection-oriented communication model where data is sent in packets with sequence numbers.

If a packet is lost in transit, TCP detects the loss through acknowledgments and retransmits the missing packet. This process ensures that all data arrives intact and in the correct order, which is fundamental to the operation of many network applications. By using checksums, sequence numbers, and acknowledgments, TCP guarantees that data is not only sent but also received correctly and reliably, making it a widely-used protocol in various networking scenarios.

In contrast, characteristics such as connectionless communication, faster data transfer, and no data sequencing pertain to other protocols like UDP (User Datagram Protocol), which sacrifices reliability for speed by not establishing a connection or ensuring that data packets are delivered in order. Therefore, the ability of TCP to provide error recovery is what primarily distinguishes it from such alternatives.