UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a long standing protocol used together with IP for sending data when transmission speed and efficiency matter more than security and reliability.

UDP uses a simple connectionless communication model with a minimum of protocol mechanism. UDP provides checksums for data integrity, and port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination of the datagram. It has no handshaking dialogues, and thus exposes the user’s program to any unreliability>) of the underlying network; there is no guarantee of delivery, ordering, or duplicate protection. 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.