A technician with a PC is using multiple applications while connected to the Internet. How is the PC able to keep track of the data flow between multiple application sessions and have each application receive the correct packet flows?

The PC is able to manage data flow between multiple applications and ensure that each application receives the correct packets by tracking the data flow based on the source port number. When an application on a PC establishes a connection to a server over the Internet, it usually does so through a specific port. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) both use port numbers to distinguish different application sessions.

When packets travel from the PC to various destinations, they include both source and destination IP addresses along with the source and destination port numbers. The source port number allows the PC's operating system to know which application initiated the connection and to route incoming packets back to the correct session. This is essential for functioning applications simultaneously; each can send and receive data independently without interference, as the port numbers uniquely identify each session.

Using just the destination IP address alone wouldn’t allow the PC to distinguish between multiple applications communicating with the same server, as they would all share the same destination but have different source port numbers. Similarly, maintaining a session log is not typically the mechanism used at the packet level; it may be relevant in higher-level application management, but it doesn’t help with real-time packet delivery. Identifying packets by application name would not be efficient or