TCP Retransmission
TCP will retransmit a segment upon expiration of an adaptive transmission timer.
When TCP transmits a segment, it records the time of transmission and the sequence number of the segment.
When TCP receives an acknowledgment, it records the time.
This allows TCP to build a sample round-trip delay time.
TCP will build an average delay time for a packet to be sent and received.
The timer is slowly changed to allow for the varying differences in the Internet.