UDP
- User Datagram Protocol
- No connection-based protocol.
- UDP es un protocolo que no realiza conexión. No proporciona confiabilidad, ni ventanas, ni reordenamiento de los datos. Sin embargo, proporciona transferencia de datos y multiplexación usando números de puerto. Este proceso lo hace utilizando menos Bytes de sobre carga que TCP. Lo que es beneficioso para comunicaciones en tiempo real como VoIP
- Stateless connection
- Rápido y Ligero:
- Uso en Aplicaciones: Ideal para aplicaciones donde la velocidad es crucial y se pueden tolerar algunas pérdidas de datos, como juegos en línea, streaming de video y voz sobre IP (VoIP).
UDP packets are much simpler than TCP packets and have fewer headers. However, both protocols share some standard headers, which are what is annotated in the table below:
| Header | Description |
| Time to Live (TTL) | This field sets an expiry timer for the packet, so it doesn't clog up your network if it never manages to reach a host or escape! |
| Source Address | The IP address of the device that the packet is being sent from, so that data knows where to return to. |
| Destination Address | The device's IP address the packet is being sent to so that data knows where to travel next. |
| Source Port | This value is the port that is opened by the sender to send the UDP packet from. This value is randomly chosen (out of the ports from 0-65535 that aren't already in use at the time). |
| Destination Port | This value is the port number that an application or service is running on the remote host (the one receiving the data); for example, a webserver running on port 80. Unlike the source port, this value is not chosen at random. |
| Data | This header is where data, i.e. bytes of a file that is being transmitted, is stored. |
| Advantages of UDP | Disadvantages of UDP |
| UDP is much faster than TCP. | UDP doesn't care if the data is received. |
| UDP leaves the application layer (user software) to decide if there is any control over how quickly packets are sent. | It is quite flexible to software developers in this sense. |
| UDP does not reserve a continuous connection on a device as TCP does. | This means that unstable connections result in a terrible experience for the user. |
The diagram below shows a normal UDP connection between Alice and Bob. In real life, this would be between two devices.
