User Datagram Protocol

In computer networking, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet protocol suite . With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Prior communications are not required in order to set up communication channels or paths.

UDP uses a simple connectionless communication model with a minimum of protocol mechanisms.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectionless_communication

UDP datagram | Destination | Source | Length | Checksum | Data | | port | port | | | |

Lacks most of extra fields found in TCP segments , since it’s connectionless .

  • Best for transmitting lots of data where dropped frames won’t make much difference
  • Really fast compared to TCP .
  • DNS and DHCP are two examples that use UDP