TCP vs communications protocol

TCP and communications protocol both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
TCP	Yes	No	No	No
communications protocol	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, communications protocol is a hypernym of TCP; that is, communications protocol is a word with a broader meaning than TCP:

TCP: a protocol developed for the internet to get data from one network device to another
communications protocol: (computer science) rules determining the format and transmission of data

Other hypernyms of TCP include protocol.

TCP (noun)	communications protocol (noun)
a protocol developed for the internet to get data from one network device to another	(computer science) rules determining the format and transmission of data