TCP really isn't a virtual circuit protocol in the same sense that X.25 PLP is a virtual circuit protocol: In VC protocols you say something like "network, I wa

TCP really isn't a virtual circuit protocol in the same sense that X.25 PLP is a virtual circuit protocol: In VC protocols you say something like "network, I want to talk to address X," establish a channel (getting a channel ID allocated) and from then on send packets to the channel (not mentioning the remote address again), knowing that they'll arrive there. This means the routers on the way are stateful. TCP theoretically doesn't care about routing, and IP is stateless.