User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network without requiring prior communications to set up special transmission channels or data paths. The protocol was designed by David P. Reed in 1980
This User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is defined to make available a
datagram mode of packet-switched computer communication in the
environment of an interconnected set of computer networks. This
protocol assumes that the Internet Protocol (IP) [1] is used as the
underlying protocol.
UDP uses a simple transmission model without implicit hand-shaking dialogues for providing reliability, ordering, or data integrity. 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.[2] 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.
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network without requiring prior communications to set up special transmission channels or data paths. The protocol was designed by David P. Reed in 1980
This User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is defined to make available a
datagram mode of packet-switched computer communication in the
environment of an interconnected set of computer networks. This
protocol assumes that the Internet Protocol (IP) [1] is used as the
underlying protocol.
UDP uses a simple transmission model without implicit hand-shaking dialogues for providing reliability, ordering, or data integrity. 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.[2] 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.
Format
0 7 8 15 16 23 24 31
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Source | Destination |
| Port | Port |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | |
| Length | Checksum |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|
| data octets ...
+---------------- ...
User Datagram Header Format
Destination Port has a meaning within the context of a particular
internet destination address.
Length is the length in octets of this user datagram including this
header and the data. (This means the minimum value of the length is
eight.)
Checksum is the 16-bit one's complement of the one's complement sum of a
pseudo header of information from the IP header, the UDP header, and the
data, padded with zero octets at the end (if necessary) to make a
multiple of two octets.
The pseudo header conceptually prefixed to the UDP header contains the
source address, the destination address, the protocol, and the UDP
length. This information gives protection against misrouted datagrams.
This checksum procedure is the same as is used in TCP.
0 7 8 15 16 23 24 31
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| source address |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| destination address |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| zero |protocol| UDP length |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
If the computed checksum is zero, it is transmitted as all ones (the
equivalent in one's complement arithmetic). An all zero transmitted
checksum value means that the transmitter generated no checksum (for
debugging or for higher level protocols that don't care).
