Computer Networking

UDP

Datagrams over IP with no connection, no ordering and no retransmission — and why DNS, real-time media and QUIC choose exactly that.

The question this module answers · Why would anyone want a transport that can lose your data?

UDP: Datagrams and the Contract You Choose

▶ interactive

UDP wraps an application message in an 8-byte header and hands it to IP as one datagram — no connection, no ordering, no retransmission, no flow or congestion control — so the application gets message boundaries, minimal latency and total control, and inherits every responsibility TCP would otherwise have taken.