Do I need to heartbeat to keep a TCP connection open?

Question

I have two components that that communicate via TCP/IP. Component A acts as a server/listener and Component B is the client. The two should communicate as quickly as possi

Answer 1

Basically a TCP connection creates link states stored in switches along to route. In order to detect broken connections (like when one counterpart crashes (without sending a proper disconnect)), these states have to be evicted after a period of inactivity. And when this happens, your TCP connection has been closed. Although I cannot exactly tell how long these timeouts are, they seem to depend on the device-producers and/or on internet providers. I remember my idle SSH terminal sessions were rapidly (less than 15min of idle time) closed by my former 1&1 internet provider while they stayed open for several hours when using a Kabel-BW provided connection...

Finally, I conclude with my previous speakers: a heart-beat is a good way to tell if a connection is still alive and kicking...