Overview
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a 'fire and forget' protocol. It does not establish a connection, does not guarantee delivery, and does not ensure data arrives in order. This lack of overhead makes it very fast.
Key Characteristics
- Connectionless: No handshake required.
- Low Overhead: Small header size (8 bytes vs. TCP's 20+ bytes).
- No Retransmission: If a packet is lost, it's gone.
Use Cases
Real-time applications where speed is more important than perfect accuracy, such as VoIP, video streaming, online gaming, and DNS queries.