COMPUTER NETWORK

B.TECH CSE

3rd Year – 1st Sem

UNIT – IV

Transport Layer

DEPARTMENT OF CSE
VIGNAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
DESHMUKHI
 THE TRANSPORT LAYER
In computer networking, the transport layer is a conceptual division of methods in the
layered architecture of protocols in the network stack in the Internet protocol suite and the
OSI model. The protocols of this layer provide end-to-end communication services for
applications. It provides services such as connection-oriented communication, reliability,
flow control, and multiplexing.
The transport layer builds on the network layer to provide data transport from a process on
a source to destination machine with a desired level of reliability that is independent of the
physical networks currently in use.
It is an end-to-end layer used to deliver messages to a host.
 Because it provides a point-to-point connection rather than hop-to-hop, between the
source host and destination host to deliver the services reliably.
 It is responsible for ensuring that the data packets arrive accurately and reliably between
sender and receiver.
 The transport layer most often uses TCP or User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
 In the TCP/IP network model, the transport layer comes between the application and
network layers.

Responsibilities of a Transport Layer

 The Process to Process Delivery
 End-to-End Connection between Hosts
 Multiplexing and De-multiplexing
 Congestion Control
 Data integrity and Error correction
 Flow control

THE TRANSPORT SERVICE

What kind of service is provided to the application layer?

THE TRANSPORT
SERVICE

An Example of Socket
Services Provided to Transport Service
Berkeley Sockets Programming: An
the Upper Layers Primitives
Internet File Server

Services Provided to the Upper Layers

The main role of the transport layer is to provide the communication services directly to the
application processes running on different hosts. The transport layer provides a logical
communication between application processes running on different hosts. Although the
application processes on different hosts are not physically connected, application processes use
the logical communication provided by the transport layer to send the messages to each other.
The transport layer protocols are implemented in the end systems but not in the network routers.
A computer network provides more than one protocol to the network applications. All transport
layer protocols provide multiplexing/demultiplexing service. It also provides other services
such as reliable data transfer, bandwidth guarantees, and delay guarantees. Each of the
applications in the application layer has the ability to send a message by using TCP or UDP.
The application communicates by using either of these two protocols. Both TCP and UDP will
then communicate with the internet protocol in the internet layer. The applications can read and
write to the transport layer. Therefore, we can say that communication is a two-way process.

Ultimate goal of the transport layer is to provide efficient, reliable, and cost-effective data
transmission service to its users, normally processes in the application layer.
The software and/or hardware within the transport layer that does the work is called the
transport entity.
The connection-oriented transport service
 Connections have three phases: establishment, transfer and release.

The connectionless transport service

 It can be difficult to provide a connectionless transport service on top of a
connection-oriented network service, since it is inefficient to set up a connection
to send a single packet and then tear it down immediately afterwards
Transport Service Primitives
Transport service primitives play a crucial role in the field of networking and
telecommunications. These primitives serve as the fundamental building blocks for the
transport layer protocols, enabling reliable and efficient communication between network hosts
The primitives for a simple transport service:

To allow users to access the transport service, the transport layer must provide some operations
to application programs, that is, a transport service interface. Each transport service has its own
interface. The main difference between network service and transport service is intended to
model the service offered by real networks, warts and all. Real networks can lose packets, so
the network service is generally unreliable.

The connection-oriented transport service, in contrast, is reliable.

Of course, real networks are not error-free, but that is precisely the purpose of the transport
layer — to provide a reliable service on top of an unreliable network.
There are five types of service primitives:
Berkeley Socket:
Berkeley sockets is an application programming interface (API) for Internet sockets and
UNIX domain sockets. It is used for inter-process communication (IPC). It is commonly
implemented as a library of linkable modules. It originated with the 4.2BSD UNIX released in
1983.

Socket Programming:
Socket programming is a way of connecting two nodes on a network to communicate with each
other. One socket (node) listens on a particular port at an IP, while the other socket reaches out
to the other to form a connection. The server forms the listener socket while the client reaches
out to the server.

Server side:
o Server startup executes SOCKET, BIND & LISTEN primitives.
 LISTEN primitive allocate queue for multiple simultaneous clients.
 Then it use ACCEPT to suspend server until request.
 When client request arrives: ACCEPT returns.
 Start new socket (thread or process) with same properties as original, this handles the
request, server goes on waiting on original socket.
 If new request arrives while spawning thread for this one, it is queued.
  If queue full it is refused.

Client side:
 It uses SOCKET primitives to create.
 Then use CONNECT to initiate connection process.
 When this returns the socket is open.
 Both sides can now SEND, RECEIVE.
 Connection not released until both sides do CLOSE.
 Typically client does it, server acknowledges.

An Example of Socket Programming: An Internet

File Server
A socket is a communications connection point (endpoint) that can add name
and address in a network.
 A socket is the endpoint used for connecting to a node.
 The processes that use a socket can reside on the same system or different systems on
different networks.
 Sockets are useful for both stand-alone and network applications.

Socket programming is a way of connecting two nodes on a network to

communicate with each other.

 A node represents a computer or a physical device with an internet connection.

 One socket(node) listens on a particular port at an IP, while the other socket reaches
out to the other to form a connection. The server forms the listener socket while the
client reaches out to the server.
Socket programming shows how to use socket APIs to establish communication
links between remote and local processes.
o The signals required to implement the connection between two nodes are sent and
received using the sockets on each node respectively.
 The nodes are divided into two types, server node and client node.
 The client node sends the connection signal and the server node receives the connection
signal sent by the client node.
 The connection between a server and client node is established using the socket over
the transport layer of the internet.
 After a connection has been established, the client and server nodes can share
information between them using the read and write commands.
 After sharing of information is done, the nodes terminate the connection.
 ELEMENTS OF TRANSPORT PROTOCOLS
This describes various elements of transport protocol in transport layer of computer networks
there are six elements of transport protocol namely: Addressing, Connection establishment
connection release, flow control and buffers, multiplexing and crash recovery.

The transport service is implemented by a transport protocol used between the two transport
entities.

 In some ways, transport protocols resemble the data link protocols.

 Both have to deal with error control, sequencing, and flow control, among other issues.

At the data link layer, two routers communicate directly via a physical channel, whether wired
or wireless, whereas at the transport layer, this physical channel is replaced by the entire
network.
In data link layer over point-to-point links such as wires or optical fiber, it is usually not
necessary for a router to specify which router it wants to talk to — each outgoing line leads
directly to a particular router.

In the transport layer, explicit addressing of estimations is required.

 ELEMENTS OF
TRANSPORT
PROTOCOLS

Error Control
Connection Connection Crash
Addressing and Flow Multiplexing
Establishment Release Recovery
Control

Addressing
Addressing is the ability to communicate with the correct application on the computer.
Addressing typically uses network ports to assign each sending and receiving application a
specific port number on the machine. By combining the IP address used in the network layer
and the port on the transport layer, each application can have a unique address.

 TransportLayer deals with addressing or labelling a frame.

 It also differentiates between a connection and a transaction.
 Connection identifiers are ports or sockets that label each frame, so the receiving device
knows which process it has been sent from. This helps in keeping track of multiple-
message conversations.
 Ports or sockets address multiple conservations in the same location.

 Addressing typically uses network ports to assign each sending and receiving application
a specific port number on the machine.
 By combining the IP address used in the network layer and the port on the transport
layer, each application can have a unique address.
To define transport addresses to which processes can listen for connection
requests.
In the Internet, these endpoints are called ports.
✓The generic term TSAP (Transport Service Access Point) to mean a specific endpoint
in the transport layer.
✓The analogous endpoints in the network layer (i.e., network layer addresses) are not-
surprisingly called NSAPs (Network Service Access Points).
✓IP addresses are examples of NSAPs.
Connection Establishment
TCP connection establishment is a crucial phase in the lifecycle of a TCP connection, where
the client and server establish a secure and robust link before data exchange begins. This
process involves a series of steps, protocols, and handshakes that ensure seamless
communication. The intricacies of TCP connection establishment, unraveling its significance
and shedding light on the key aspects that make it an indispensable component of modern
networking.

Establishing a connection sounds easy, but it is actually surprisingly tricky.

 At first glance, one transport entity to just send a CONNECTION REQUEST segment
to the destination and wait for a CONNECTION ACCEPTED reply.
 The problem occurs when the network can lose, delay, corrupt, and duplicate packets.
This behavior causes serious complications.
 To solve this specific problem, Tomlinson (1975) introduced the three-way handshake.
 This establishment protocol involves one peer checking with the other that the connection
request is indeed current.

Three-way handshake
The 3-Way handshake is a TCP/IP network connection mechanism that connects the server and
client. Before the real data communication process begins, both the client and server must
exchange synchronization and acknowledgment packets.

The 3-way handshake mechanism is designed to allow both communicating ends to initiate and
negotiate the network TCP socket connection parameters at the same time before data is
transmitted. It allows you to transfer numerous TCP socket connections in both directions
simultaneously.

TCP uses three-way handshake to establish connections.

 Within a connection, a timestamp is used to extend the 32-bit sequence number so that it
will not wrap within the maximum packet lifetime, even for gigabit-per-second
connections.
 This mechanism is a fix to TCP that was needed as it was used on faster and faster links.
✓ It is described in RFC 1323 and called PAWS (Protection Against Wrapped Sequence
numbers).
Three Way Handshake is a process used for establishing a TCP connection.
✓ Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides a secure and reliable connection between
two devices using the 3-way handshake process.

Figure 6-11. Three protocol scenarios for establishing a connection using a three-way handshake.
CR denotes CONNECTION REQUEST. (a) Normal operation. (b) Old duplicate CONNECTION
REQUEST appearing out of nowhere. (c) Duplicate CONNECTION REQUEST and duplicate ACK.

Connection Release
There are two styles of terminating a connection: asymmetric release and symmetric release
 Asymmetric release is the way the telephone system works: when one party hangs up,
the connection is broken.
 Symmetric release treats the connection as two separate unidirectional connections and
requires each one to be released separately.

Figure 6-12. Abrupt disconnection with loss of data.

There is a famous problem that illustrates this issue. It is called the two-army problem.
Error Control and Flow Control
Error Control is performed end to end in this layer to ensure that the complete message arrives
at the receiving transport layer without any error. Error Correction is done through
retransmission. network layer. Ensure correct delivery of data with efficiency.

Error Control: is performed end to end in this layer to ensure that the complete message arrives
at the receiving transport layer without any error.
 Error Correction is done through retransmission.
 Error control is ensuring that the data is delivered with the desired level of reliability,
usually that all of the data is delivered without any errors.
 Flow Control: In this layer, flow control is performed end to end.
 Flow control is keeping a fast transmitter from overrunning a slow receiver.

Multiplexing
Gathering data from multiple application processes of the sender, enveloping that data with a
header, and sending them as a whole to the intended receiver is called multiplexing. Delivering
received segments at the receiver side to the correct app layer processes is called
demultiplexing.

Multiplexing involves combining multiple data streams into a single transmission

channel.
 Multiplexing is a technique used to combine and send the multiple data streams over a
single medium.
 The process of combining the data streams is known as multiplexing and hardware used
for multiplexing is known as a multiplexer.

Advantages of Multiplexing:
 More than one signal can be sent over a single medium.
 The bandwidth of a medium can be utilized effectively.
Crash Recovery
 If hosts and routers are subject to crashes or connections are long-lived (e.g., large
software or media downloads), recovery from these crashes becomes an issue.
 If the transport entity is entirely within the hosts, recovery from network and router
crashes is straightforward. • The transport entities expect lost segments all the time and know
how to cope with them by using retransmissions
TCP is very reliable protocol.
 It provides sequence number to each of byte sent in segment.
 It provides the feedback mechanism i.e. when a host receives a packet, it is bound to ACK
that packet having the next sequence number expected (if it is not the last segment).
 When a TCP Server crashes mid-way communication and re-starts its process it sends
TPDU broadcast to all its hosts.
 The hosts can then send the last data segment which was never unacknowledged and
carry onwards.

TCP and UDP protocols

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) both are
protocols of the Transport Layer.
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol where as UDP is a part of the Internet Protocol suite,
referred to as the UDP/IP suite. UDP is an unreliable and connectionless protocol. They serve
as the foundation for communication between applications over a network, but they differ in
their features and use cases.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It lies
between the Application and Network Layers which are used in providing reliable delivery services. It
is a connection-oriented protocol for communications that helps in the exchange of messages between
different devices over a network. The Internet Protocol (IP), which establishes the technique for
sending data packets between computers, works with TCP.

 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) was specifically designed to provide a reliable

end-to-end byte stream over an unreliable internetwork.
 TCP meaning Transmission Control Protocol, is a communications standard for
delivering data and messages through networks. TCP is a basic standard that defines the
rules of the internet and is a common protocol used to deliver data in digital network
communications.

An internetwork differs from a single network because different parts may have wildly different
topologies, bandwidths, delays, packet sizes, and other parameters.
 Introduction to TCP

The TCP Service Model

The TCP Protocol

The TCP Segment

Header

TCP Connection
Establishment

TCP Connection Release

TCP Connection
Management Modeling

TCP Sliding Window

TCP Timer Management

TCP Congestion Control

The Future of TCP

Introduction to TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is one of the main protocols of the
Internet protocol suite. It lies between the Application and Network Layers which are used in
providing reliable delivery services. It is a connection-oriented protocol for communications
that helps in the exchange of messages between different devices over a network. The Internet
Protocol (IP), which establishes the technique for sending data packets between computers,
works with TCP
 TCP Service Model
TCP provides several essential services to ensure reliable and ordered communication between
applications over a network.
Both the sender and the receiver creating end-points, called sockets, obtain TCP service,
\Each socket has a socket number (address) consisting of the IP address of the host and a 16-bit
number local to that host, called a port. A port is the TCP name for a TSAP. For TCP service
to be obtained, a connection must be explicitly established between a socket on one machine
and a socket on another machine.

The various services provided by the TCP to the application layer:-

Process-to-Process Communication
 Process-to-process communication: To exchange of data and information between two
applications or processes running on different devices within a network.
 The communication between these processes is facilitated by various protocols and
mechanisms.
 TCP provides process-to-process communication using port numbers.

Connection-Oriented Service
 A connection-oriented service is a type of communication service provided by a
network protocol, where a dedicated and reliable connection is established between two
devices or processes before data transfer begins.
 This service ensures that data is delivered accurately, in order, and without errors.
 Connection-oriented services are commonly associated with protocols like
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in the TCP/IP protocol suite.
 The two TCPs establish a connection between them.
 Data are exchanged in both directions.
 The connection is terminated.
 Stream Delivery Service
 A stream delivery service involves transmitting data as a continuous stream without
explicit message boundaries.
 It is suitable for real-time applications like video and audio streaming, providing a
constant and uninterrupted flow of data.
 TCP is a common protocol for stream delivery, ensuring reliable and ordered
communication.

Reliable Service
 A reliable service in networking ensures accurate, ordered, and error-free data delivery
between devices.
 It includes acknowledgment, retransmission, error detection, and flow control
mechanisms. TCP is a common example of a reliable protocol, providing guarantees for
data integrity and order.
 TCP is a reliable transport protocol. It uses an acknowledgment mechanism to check the
safe and sound arrival of data.

The TCP Protocol

Protocols are sets of rules for message formats and procedures that allow machines and
application programs to exchange information. Each machine involved in the communication
in order for the receiving host to be able to understand the message must follow these rules.
The TCP/IP suite of protocols can be understood in terms of layers (or levels). The TCP/IP
protocol from the top: Application Layer, Transport Layer, Network Layer, Network Interface
Layer, and Hardware. Transport Layer Protocols, either the User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
or the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

TCP Segment Header

Each TCP segment contains a header and data. The TCP header contains many more fields than
the UDP header and can range in size from to bytes, depending on the size of the options field.
The TCP header shares some fields with the UDP header: source port number, destination port
number, and checksum.
A packet in TCP is called a segment.
 The segment consists of a 20- to 60-byte header, followed by data from the application
program. The header is 20 bytes if there are no options and up to 60 bytes if it contains
options.
 Every segment begins with a fixed-format, 20-byte header. The fixed header may be
followed by header options. After the options, if any, up to 65,535 − 20 − 20 = 65,495
data bytes
TCP Segment Header
i. Source port: It defines the port of the application, which is sending the data. So, this
field contains the source port address, which is 16 bits.
ii. Destination port: It defines the port of the application on the receiving side. So, this
field contains the destination port address, which is 16 bits.
iii. Sequence number: This field contains the sequence number of data bytes in a particular
session.
iv. Acknowledgment number: When the ACK flag is set, then this contains the next
sequence number of the data byte and works as an acknowledgment for the previous
data received. For example, if the receiver receives the segment number 'x', then it
responds 'x+1' as an acknowledgment number.
v. HLEN: It specifies the length of the header indicated by the 4-byte words in the header.
The size of the header lies between 20 and 60 bytes. Therefore, the value of this field
would lie between 5 and 15.
vi. Reserved: It is a 4-bit field reserved for future use, and by default, all are set to zero.
vii. Flags
There are six control bits or flags:
a. URG: It represents an urgent pointer. If it is set, then the data is processed
urgently.
b. ACK: If the ACK is set to 0, then it means that the data packet does not contain
an acknowledgment.
c. PSH: If this field is set, then it requests the receiving device to push the data to
the receiving application without buffering it.
d. RST: If it is set, then it requests to restart a connection.
e. SYN: It is used to establish a connection between the hosts.
f. FIN: It is used to release a connection, and no further data exchange will happen.
viii. Window size : It is a 16-bit field. It contains the size of data that the receiver can
accept. This field is used for the flow control between the sender and receiver and also
determines the amount of buffer allocated by the receiver for a segment. The value of
this field is determined by the receiver.
ix. Checksum : It is a 16-bit field. This field is optional in UDP, but in the case of TCP/IP,
this field is mandatory.
x. Urgent pointer : It is a pointer that points to the urgent data byte if the URG flag is set
to 1. It defines a value that will be added to the sequence number to get the sequence
number of the last urgent byte.
 xi. Options : It provides additional options. The optional field is represented in 32-bits. If
this field contains the data less than 32-bit, then padding is required to obtain the
remaining bits.

TCP Connection Establishment

Connection establishment is performed by using the three-way handshake mechanism.
 A three-way handshake synchronizes both ends of a network by enabling both sides to
agree upon original sequence numbers.
 To establish a connection, one side, say, the server, passively waits for an incoming
connection by executing the LISTEN and ACCEPT primitives in that order, either
specifying a specific source or nobody in particular.
 The other side, say, the client, executes a CONNECT primitive, specifying the IP
address and port to which it wants to connect, the maximum TCP segment size it is
willing to accept.

TCP Connection Release

TCP connections are full duplex, to understand how connections are released it is best to think
of them as a pair of simplex connections. Each simplex connection is released independently
of its sibling.
 To release a connection, either party can send a TCP segment with the FIN bit set,
which means that it has no more data to transmit. When the FIN is acknowledged, that
direction is shut down for new data.
 When both directions have been shut down, the connection is released.

TCP Connection Management Modeling

The steps required to establish and release connections can be represented in a finite state
machine with the 11 states.
 In each state, certain events are legal. When a legal event happens, some action may be
taken. If some other event happens, an error is reported.
 Each connection starts in the CLOSED state. It leaves that state when it does either a
passive open (LISTEN) or an active open (CONNECT).
 TCP Sliding Window
The TCP sliding window determines the number of unacknowledged bytes, x, that one
system can send to another. Two factors determine the value of x: The size of the send buffer
on the sending system. The size and available space in the receive buffer on the receiving
system.
The sliding window is a technique that allows TCP to adjust the amount of data that can be
sent or received at any given time.

 The sliding window is a variable-sized buffer that represents the available space in
the sender's or the receiver's end of the connection.
 The sender can only send data that fits within the window, and the receiver can only
accept data that fits within the window.
 The window size can change depending on the network congestion, the available
bandwidth, and the feedback from the other end of the connection

Some points about TCP sliding windows:

o The size of the window is the lesser of rwnd and cwnd. o The source does not have to
send a full window's worth of data.
 The window can be opened or closed by the receiver, but should not be shrunk.
 The destination can send an acknowledgment at any time as long as it does not result in
a shrinking window.
  The receiver can temporarily shut down the window; the sender, however, can always
send a segment of 1 byte after the window is shut down.

TCP Features
Numbering System
There are two fields in TCP mainly sequence number and acknowledgment
number.These two fields in the TCP mainly refers to Byte Number.
Byte Number
The bytes of data that are being transferred in each connection are numbered by TCP.
 The numbering mainly starts with a randomly generated number.
 TCP mainly numbers all the data bytes that are transmitted in a connection.
Sequence Number
After the numbering of bytes, the TCP makes the grouping of bytes in the form of "segments".
 A sequence is assigned to each segment that is being sent.
 The Sequence number of each segment is the number of the first byte that is carried in
that segment.
 Thus the value in the sequence number field of the segment mainly defines the number
of the first data byte that is contained in that segment.
Flow Control
The TCP provides the facility of Flow control. With the help of TCP, the receiver of the data
control the amount of the data that are to be sent by the sender. The flow control is mainly done
in order to prevent the receiver from being overwhelmed with the data. The numbering system
also allows the TCP to use byte-oriented flow control.
TCP uses a sliding window to handle flow control. The sliding window protocol used by TCP,
however, is something between the Go-Back-N and Selective Repeat sliding window.
 The window is opened, closed, or shrunk. These three activities, are in the control
of the receiver (and depend on congestion in the network), not the sender.
 The sender must obey the commands of the receiver in this matter.
 Opening a window means moving the right wall to the right.
 Closing the window means moving the left wall to the right.
 Sluinking the window means moving the right wall to the left.

Error Control
As TCP provides reliable services, thus it implements an error control mechanism for this
purpose. The Error control though considers the segment as the unit of data for error detection.
Error control is byte-oriented in nature.
 TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol. This means that an application program that
delivers a stream of data to TCP relies on TCP to deliver the entire stream to the
application program on the other end in order, without error, and without any part lost or
duplicated.
 TCP provides reliability using error control. Error control includes mechanisms for
detecting corrupted segments, lost segments, out-of-order segments, and duplicated
segments. Error control also includes a mechanism for correcting errors after they are
detected. Error detection and correction in TCP is achieved through the use of three
simple tools: checksum, acknowledgment, and time-out.

USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL (UDP)

The Internet has two main protocols in the transport layer, a connectionless protocol and a
connection-oriented one. The protocols complement each other. The connectionless protocol is
UDP. It does almost nothing beyond sending packets between applications, letting applications
build their own protocols on top as needed. The connection-oriented protocol is TCP. It does
almost everything. It makes connections and adds reliability with retransmissions, along with
flow control and congestion control, all on behalf of the applications that use it.

The Internet protocol suite supports a connectionless transport protocol called UDP (User
Datagram Protocol). UDP provides a way for applications to send encapsulated IP datagrams
without having to establish a connection.

The User Datagram Protocol, or UDP, is a communication protocol used across the Internet
for especially time-sensitive transmissions such as video playback or DNS lookups. It speeds
up communications by not formally establishing a connection before data is transferred.
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is called a connectionless, unreliable transport protocol. It
does not add anything to the services of IP except to provide process-to process communication
instead of host-to-host communication. If a process wants to send a small message and does not
care much about reliability, it can use UDP. Sending a small message by using UDP takes much
less interaction between the sender and receiver than using TCP or SCTP.

UDP Header
In UDP, the header size is 8 bytes, and the packet size is upto 65,535 bytes. But this packet size
is not possible as the data needs to be encapsulated in the IP datagram, and an IP packet, the
header size can be 20 bytes; therefore, the maximum of UDP would be 65,535 minus 20. The
size of the data that the UDP packet can carry would be 65,535 minus 28 as 8 bytes for the
header of the UDP packet and 20 bytes for IP header.

UDP packets, called user datagrams, have a fixed-size header of 8 bytes. Figure 6-27 shows the
format of a user datagram.

The fields in a UDP header are:

o Source port – The port of the device sending the data. This field can be set to zero if the
destination computer doesn’t need to reply to the sender.
o Destination port – The port of the device receiving the data. UDP port numbers can be
between 0 and 65,535.
o UDP Length – Specifies the number of bytes comprising the UDP header and the UDP
payload data. The limit for the UDP length field is determined by the underlying IP
protocol used to transmit the data.
o UDP Checksum – The checksum allows the receiving device to verify the integrity of
the packet header and payload. It is optional in IPv4 but was made mandatory in IPv6.
UDP Operation
UDP uses concepts common to the transport layer. These concepts will be discussed here
briefly, and then expanded in the next section on the TCP protocol.

Connectionless Services
UDP provides a connectionless service. This means that each user datagram sent by UDP is an
independent datagram. There is no relationship between the different user datagrams even if
they are coming from the same source process and going to the same destination program. The
user datagrams are not numbered. Also, there is no connection establishment and no connection
termination, as is the case for TCP. This means that each user datagram can travel on a different
path.

Flow and Error Control

UDP is a very simple, unreliable transport protocol. There is no flow control and hence no
window mechanism. The receiver may overflow with incoming messages. There is no error
control mechanism in UDP except for the checksum. This means that the sender does not know
if a message has been lost or duplicated. When the receiver detects an error through the
checksum, the user datagram is silently discarded.

Use of UDP
The following lists some uses of the UDP protocol:
 UDP is suitable for a process that requires simple request-response communication with
little concern for flow and error control. It is not usually used for a process such as FrP
that needs to send bulk data.
 UDP is suitable for a process with internal flow and error control mechanisms. For
example, the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) process includes flow and error
control. It can easily use UDP.
 UDP is a suitable transport protocol for multicasting. Multicasting capability is embedded
in the UDP software but not in the TCP software.
 UDP is used for management processes such as SNMP.
 UDP is used for some route updating protocols such as Routing Information Protocol
(RIP).

Compare TCP and UDP

Parameter TCP UDP
Name Transmission Control Protocol User Datagram Protocol or
Universal Datagram Protocol
Connection TCP is a connection-oriented UDP is a connectionless
protocol. protocol.
Usage TCP is suited for applications UDP is suitable for applications
that require high reliability, and that need fast, efficient
transmission time is relatively transmission, such as games.
less critical. 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, DNS, DHCP, TFTP, SNMP, RIP,
Telnet VOIP.
Ordering of data packets TCP rearranges data packets in UDP has no inherent order as
the order specified. 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 UDP is faster because there is
than UDP. no error-checking for packets.
Header Size TCP header size is 20 bytes UDP Header size is 8 bytes.
Common Header Fields Source port, Destination port, Source port, Destination port,
Check Sum Check Sum
Error Checking TCP does error checking UDP does error checking, but
no recovery options.
Data Flow Control TCP does Flow Control. TCP UDP does not have an option
requires three packets to set for flow control
up a socket connection, before
any user data can be sent. TCP
handles reliability and
congestion control.
Reliability There is absolute guarantee There is no guarantee that the
that the data transferred messages or packets sent
remains intact and arrives in would reach at all.
the same order in which it was
sent.