TCP vs UDP
Difference between TCP and UDP
Below table summarizes the difference between UDP and TCP:
PARAMETER | TCP | UDP |
| Full Form | Transmission Control Protocol | User Datagram Protocol or Universal Datagram Protocol |
| Connection | TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. | UDP is a connectionless protocol. |
| Half-Closed connection | TCP allows half closed connections | Not applicable for UDP protocol |
| Function | As a message makes its way across the internet from one computer to another. This is connection based. | UDP is also a protocol used in message transport or transfer. This is not connection based which means that one program can send a load of packets to another and that would be the end of the relationship. |
| Usage | TCP is suited for applications that require high reliability, and transmission time is relatively less critical. | UDP is suitable for applications that need fast, efficient transmission, such as games. UDP’s stateless nature is also useful for servers that answer small queries from huge numbers of clients. |
| Use by other protocols | HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, SMTP, Telnet,SSH | DNS, DHCP, TFTP, SNMP, RIP, VOIP,IPTV |
| Multiplexing & Demultiplexing | Using TCP port number | Using UDP port numbers |
| Ordering of data packets | TCP rearranges data packets in the order specified. | UDP has no inherent order as all packets are independent of each other. If ordering is required, it has to be managed by the application layer. |
| Speed of transfer | The speed for TCP is slower than UDP. | UDP is faster because error recovery is not attempted. It is a “best effort” protocol. |
| Reliability | There is absolute guarantee that the data transferred remains intact and arrives in the same order in which it was sent. | There is no guarantee that the messages or packets sent would reach at all. |
| Header Size | TCP header size is 20 bytes | UDP Header size is 8 bytes. |
| Common Header Fields | Source port, Destination port, Check Sum | Source port, Destination port, Check Sum |
| Streaming of data | Data is read as a byte stream, no distinguishing indications are transmitted to signal message (segment) boundaries. | Packets are sent individually and are checked for integrity only if they arrive. Packets have definite boundaries which are honoured upon receipt, meaning a read operation at the receiver socket will yield an entire message as it was originally sent. |
| Weight | TCP is heavy-weight. TCP requires three packets to set up a socket connection, before any user data can be sent. TCP handles reliability and congestion control. | UDP is lightweight. There is no ordering of messages, no tracking connections, etc. It is a small transport layer designed on top of IP. |
| Data Flow Control | TCP does Flow Control. TCP requires three packets to set up a socket connection, before any user data can be sent. TCP handles reliability and congestion control. | UDP does not have an option for flow control |
| Error Checking | TCP does error checking and error recovery. Erroneous packets are retransmitted from the source to the destination. | UDP does error checking but simply discards erroneous packets. Error recovery is not attempted. |
| Fields | 1. Sequence Number 2. AcK number 3. Data offset 4. Reserved 5. Control bit 6. Window 7. Urgent Pointer 8. Options 9. Padding 10.Check Sum 11. Source port 12. Destination port | 1. Length 2. Source port 3. Destination port 4. Check Sum |
| Acknowledgement | Acknowledgement segments | No Acknowledgment |
| Handshake | SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK | No handshake (connectionless protocol) |
CREDIT : ipwithease.com | ||
Tag:comparison, protocol
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