What are TCP and UDP?
Common factors in TCP and UDP:
- TCP and UDP are the most widely used protocols that are built on the top of IP protocol.
- Both protocols TCP and UDP are used to send bits of data over the internet, which is also known as ‘packets’.
- When packets are transferred using either TCP or UDP, it is sent to an IP address. These packets are traversed through routers to the destination.
| TCP | UDP |
|---|---|
| TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol | UDP is stands for User Datagram Protocol or Universal Datagram Protocol |
| Once the connection is setup, data can be sent bi-directional i.e. TCP is a connection oriented protocol | UDP is connectionless, simple protocol. Using UDP, messages are sent as packets |
| The speed of TCP is slower than UDP | UDP is faster compared to TCP |
| TCP is used for the application where time is not critical part of data transmission | UDP is suitable for the applications which require fast transmission of data and time is crucial in this case. |
| TCP transmission occurs in a sequential manner | UDP transmission also occurs in a sequential manner but it does not maintain the same sequence when it reaches the destination |
| It is heavy weight connection | It is lightweight transport layer |
| TCP tracks the data sent to ensure no data loss during data transmission | UDP does not ensure whether receiver receives packets are not. If packets are misses then they are just lost |
