A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server
If an application opens a connection (successfully) to SQL Server, and leaves it open in anticipation of sending a (or possible 'another') query, and in the meantime, SQL kills that connection for some reason (eg, service restarts, or a kill command is sent), then when the connection (which thinks it's open) tries to send a command, you'll get this error.

So catch the error in your application, and reconnect. Then try the command again.