Does TCP send a SYN/ACK on every packet or only on the first connection?

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I have a TCP server that listens for an incoming client, then sends it one packet of data every second. I was wondering, does the SYN/ACK packet only get sent on initial connection, so it looks like this:

<client connect>
SYN
ACK
DATA
DATA
DATA
<client disconnect>

Or does it get sent with every packet, like this?

<client connect>
SYN
ACK
DATA

SYN
ACK
DATA

SYN
ACK
DATA
<client disconnect>

Also, if it's the first case, are there any benefits of UDP over TCP if you just keep the connection open over a long period of time?

3 Answers
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