User Datagram Protocol

From Saferpedia

UDP - User Datagram Protocol is an Internet Protocol used by computer applications to send messages called datagrams to other hosts inside a network based on IP without imposing a special communication line. UDP was designed by David P. Reed and is also called Universal Datagram Protocol.

Thus, UDP provides an unreliable service and datagrams may arrive out of order, appear duplicated, or go missing without notice, UDP assumes that error checking and correction is either not necessary or performed in the application, avoiding the overhead of such processing at the network interface level. Time-sensitive applications often use UDP because dropping packets is preferable to waiting for delayed packets, which may not be an option in a real-time system. If error correction facilities are needed at the network interface level, an application may use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) which are designed for this purpose.

UDP's stateless nature is also useful for servers answering small queries from huge numbers of clients. Unlike TCP, UDP is compatible with packet broadcast (sending to all on local network) and multicasting (send to all subscribers).

Common network applications that use UDP include: the Domain Name System (DNS), streaming media applications such as IPTV, Voice over IP (VoIP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and many online games.

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