Unity-User Datagram Protocol - Wikipedia
Unity-User Datagram Protocol - Wikipedia
In computer networking, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core communication
User Datagram Protocol
protocols of the Internet protocol suite used to send messages (transported as datagrams in packets)
to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Within an IP network, UDP does not require Communication protocol
prior communication to set up communication channels or data paths. Abbreviation UDP
UDP is a connectionless protocol meaning that messages are sent without negotiating a connection Developer(s) David P. Reed
and that UDP doesn't keep track of what it has sent.[1][2] UDP provides checksums for data integrity, Introduction 1980
and port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination of the datagram. Influenced QUIC, UDP-Lite
It has no handshaking dialogues and thus exposes the user's program to any unreliability of the OSI layer Transport layer (4)
underlying network; there is no guarantee of delivery, ordering, or duplicate protection. If error-
RFC(s) RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/
correction facilities are needed at the network interface level, an application may instead use
html/rfc768)
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) which are
designed for this purpose.
UDP is suitable for purposes where error checking and correction are either not necessary or are performed in the application; UDP avoids the overhead of
such processing in the protocol stack. Time-sensitive applications often use UDP because dropping packets is preferable to waiting for packets delayed due
to retransmission, which may not be an option in a real-time system.[3]
The protocol was designed by David P. Reed in 1980 and formally defined in RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc768).
Attributes
UDP is a simple message-oriented transport layer protocol that is documented in RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc768). Although UDP
provides integrity verification (via checksum) of the header and payload,[4] it provides no guarantees to the upper layer protocol for message delivery and
the UDP layer retains no state of UDP messages once sent. For this reason, UDP sometimes is referred to as Unreliable Datagram Protocol.[5] If
transmission reliability is desired, it must be implemented in the user's application.
It is transaction-oriented, suitable for simple query-response protocols such as the Domain Name System or the Network Time Protocol.
It provides datagrams, suitable for modeling other protocols such as IP tunneling or remote procedure call and the Network File System.
It is simple, suitable for bootstrapping or other purposes without a full protocol stack, such as the DHCP and Trivial File Transfer Protocol.
It is stateless, suitable for very large numbers of clients, such as in streaming media applications like IPTV.
The lack of retransmission delays makes it suitable for real-time applications such as Voice over IP, online games, and many protocols using Real
Time Streaming Protocol.
Because it supports multicast, it is suitable for broadcast information such as in many kinds of service discovery and shared information such as
Precision Time Protocol and Routing Information Protocol.
Ports
Applications can use datagram sockets to establish host-to-host communications. An application binds a socket to its endpoint of data transmission, which
is a combination of an IP address and a port. In this way, UDP provides application multiplexing. A port is a software structure that is identified by the
port number, a 16-bit integer value, allowing for port numbers between 0 and 65535. Port 0 is reserved but is a permissible source port value if the sending
process does not expect messages in response.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has divided port numbers into three ranges.[6] Port numbers 0 through 1023 are used for common,
well-known services. On Unix-like operating systems, using one of these ports requires superuser operating permission. Port numbers 1024 through 49151
are the registered ports used for IANA-registered services. Ports 49152 through 65535 are dynamic ports that are not officially designated for any specific
service and may be used for any purpose. These may also be used as ephemeral ports, which software running on the host may use to dynamically create
communications endpoints as needed.[6]
4 32 Length Checksum
8 64
12 96 Data
⋮ ⋮
The use of the Checksum and Source Port fields is optional in IPv4 (light purple background in table). In IPv6 only the Source Port field is optional. If not
used, these fields should be set to zero.[7]
Checksum computation
The method used to compute the checksum is defined in RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc768), and efficient calculation is discussed in
RFC 1071 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1071):
Checksum is the 16-bit ones' complement of the ones' complement sum of a pseudo header of information from the IP header, the UDP header,
and the data, padded with zero octets at the end (if necessary) to make a multiple of two octets.[7]
In other words, all 16-bit words are summed using ones' complement arithmetic. Add the 16-bit values up. On each addition, if a carry-out (17th bit) is
produced, swing that 17th carry bit around and add it to the least significant bit of the running total.[11] Finally, the sum is then ones' complemented to
yield the value of the UDP checksum field.
If the checksum calculation results in the value zero (all 16 bits 0) it should be sent as the ones' complement (all 1s) as a zero-value checksum indicates no
checksum has been calculated.[7] In this case, any specific processing is not required at the receiver, because all 0s and all 1s are equal to zero in 1's
complement arithmetic.
The differences between IPv4 and IPv6 are in the pseudo header used to compute the checksum, and that the checksum is not optional in IPv6.[12] Under
specific conditions, a UDP application using IPv6 is allowed to use a zero UDP zero-checksum mode with a tunnel protocol.[13]
Offset Octet 0 1 2 3
Octet Bit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
0 0 Source Address
4 32 Destination Address
20 160
24 192 Data
⋮ ⋮
Any transport or other upper-layer protocol that includes the addresses from the IP header in its checksum computation must be modified for use
over IPv6, to include the 128-bit IPv6 addresses instead of 32-bit IPv4 addresses.
When computing the checksum, again a pseudo header is used that mimics the real IPv6 header:
4 32
Source address
8 64
12 96
16 128
20 160
Destination address
24 192
28 224
32 256 UDP length
48 384
52 416 Data
⋮ ⋮
Most often, UDP applications do not employ reliability mechanisms and may even be hindered by them. Streaming media, real-time multiplayer games
and voice over IP (VoIP) are examples of applications that often use UDP. In these particular applications, loss of packets is not usually a fatal problem. In
VoIP, for example, latency and jitter are the primary concerns. The use of TCP would cause jitter if any packets were lost as TCP does not provide
subsequent data to the application while it is requesting a re-send of the missing data.
Applications
Numerous key Internet applications use UDP, including: the Domain Name System (DNS), the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the
Routing Information Protocol (RIP)[3] and the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
Voice and video traffic is generally transmitted using UDP. Real-time video and audio streaming protocols are designed to handle occasional lost packets,
so only slight degradation in quality occurs, rather than large delays if lost packets were retransmitted. Because both TCP and UDP run over the same
network, in the mid-2000s a few businesses found that an increase in UDP traffic from these real-time applications slightly hindered the performance of
applications using TCP such as point of sale, accounting, and database systems (when TCP detects packet loss, it will throttle back its data rate usage).[14]
Some VPN systems such as OpenVPN may use UDP and perform error checking at the application level while implementing reliable connections.
QUIC is a transport protocol built on top of UDP. QUIC provides a reliable and secure connection. HTTP/3 uses QUIC as opposed to earlier versions of
HTTPS which use a combination of TCP and TLS to ensure reliability and security respectively. This means that HTTP/3 uses a single handshake to set up
a connection, rather than having two separate handshakes for TCP and TLS, meaning the overall time to establish a connection is reduced.[15]
Reliable – TCP manages message acknowledgment, retransmission and timeouts. Multiple attempts to deliver the message are made. If data gets lost
along the way, data will be re-sent. In TCP, there's either no missing data, or, in case of multiple timeouts, the connection is dropped.
Ordered – If two messages are sent over a connection in sequence, the first message will reach the receiving application first. When data segments
arrive in the wrong order, TCP buffers the out-of-order data until all data can be properly re-ordered and delivered to the application.
Heavyweight – TCP requires three packets to set up a socket connection before any user data can be sent. TCP handles reliability and congestion
control.
Streaming – Data is read as a byte stream, no distinguishing indications are transmitted to signal message (segment) boundaries.
User Datagram Protocol is a simpler message-based connectionless protocol. Connectionless protocols do not set up a dedicated end-to-end connection.
Communication is achieved by transmitting information in one direction from source to destination without verifying the readiness or state of the receiver.
Unreliable – When a UDP message is sent, it cannot be known if it will reach its destination; it could get lost along the way. There is no concept of
acknowledgment, retransmission, or timeout.
Not ordered – If two messages are sent to the same recipient, the order in which they arrive cannot be guaranteed.
Lightweight – There is no ordering of messages, no tracking connections, etc. It is a very simple transport layer designed on top of IP.
Datagrams – Packets are sent individually and are checked for integrity on arrival. Packets have definite boundaries which are honored upon receipt;
a read operation at the receiver socket will yield an entire message as it was originally sent.
No congestion control – UDP itself does not avoid congestion. Congestion control measures must be implemented at the application level or in the
network.
Broadcasts – being connectionless, UDP can broadcast - sent packets can be addressed to be receivable by all devices on the subnet.
Multicast – a multicast mode of operation is supported whereby a single datagram packet can be automatically routed without duplication to a group of
subscribers.
Standards
RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc768) – User Datagram Protocol
RFC 2460 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2460) – Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification
RFC 2675 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2675) – IPv6 Jumbograms
RFC 4113 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4113) – Management Information Base for the UDP
RFC 8085 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8085) – UDP Usage Guidelines
See also
Comparison of transport layer protocols UDP-based Data Transfer Protocol
Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) UDP flood attack
List of TCP and UDP port numbers UDP Helper Address
Micro Transport Protocol (μTP) UDP hole punching
Reliable Data Protocol (RDP) UDP-Lite – a variant that delivers packets even if they are malformed
Reliable User Datagram Protocol (RUDP)
References
1. Network Sales and Services Handbook. 2003. ISBN 9781587050909. 10. S. Deering; R. Hinden (July 2017). Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)
2. Windows Command Line: The Personal Trainer for Windows 8.1 Specification (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8200). Internet
Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. 2015. Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC8200 (https://doi.org/10.1748
ISBN 9781627164139. 7%2FRFC8200). STD 86. RFC 8200 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/ht
3. Kurose, J. F.; Ross, K. W. (2010). Computer Networking: A Top-Down ml/rfc8200). Internet Standard 86. Obsoletes RFC 2460 (https://datatrac
Approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-13- ker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2460).
136548-3. 11. "Compute 16-bit Ones' Complement Sum" (https://web.archive.org/web/
20201117162031/http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54379.html).
4. Clark, M.P. (2003). Data Networks IP and the Internet, 1st ed. West
mathforum.org. John. 20 March 2002. Archived from the original (http://
Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54379.html) (email) on 17 November
5. [email protected] (15 August 2006). "UDP Protocol Overview" (http://ip 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
v6.com/articles/general/User-Datagram-Protocol.htm). Ipv6.com.
12. Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification (https://datatracker.ietf.o
Retrieved 17 August 2011.
rg/doc/html/rfc8200#page-27-28). p. 27-28. doi:10.17487/RFC8200 (http
6. Forouzan, B.A. (2000). TCP/IP: Protocol Suite, 1st ed. New Delhi, India: s://doi.org/10.17487%2FRFC8200). RFC 8200 (https://datatracker.ietf.or
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. g/doc/html/rfc8200).
7. J. Postel, ed. (28 August 1980). User Datagram Protocol (https://datatra 13. Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification (https://datatracker.ietf.o
cker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc768). IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC0768 (https://doi.o rg/doc/html/rfc8085#page-23). p. 23. doi:10.17487/RFC8085 (https://do
rg/10.17487%2FRFC0768). STD 6. RFC 768 (https://datatracker.ietf.or i.org/10.17487%2FRFC8085). RFC 8085 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/do
g/doc/html/rfc768). Internet Standard 6. c/html/rfc8085).
8. Stevens, W. Richard (1994). TCP/IP Illustrated: The protocols. Vol. 1 14. "The impact of UDP on Data Applications" (https://archive.today/200707
(2 ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-20-163346-7. 31124008/http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/08/whiteboard
9. D. Borman; S. Deering; R. Hinden (August 1999). IPv6 Jumbograms (htt _series_nice_guys_fi.html). Networkperformancedaily.com. Archived
ps://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2675). Network Working Group. from the original (http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/08/whit
doi:10.17487/RFC2675 (https://doi.org/10.17487%2FRFC2675). RFC eboard_series_nice_guys_fi.html) on 31 July 2007. Retrieved 17 August
2675 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2675). Proposed Standard. 2011.
Obsoletes RFC 2147 (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2147). 15. "QUIC, a multiplexed stream transport over UDP" (https://www.chromiu
m.org/quic). chromium.org. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
External links
IANA Port Assignments (https://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers)
The Trouble with UDP Scanning (PDF) (http://condor.depaul.edu/~jkristof/papers/udpscanning.pdf)
Breakdown of UDP frame (http://www.networksorcery.com/enp/protocol/udp.htm)
UDP on MSDN Magazine Sockets and WCF (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163648.aspx)