TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) are two of the most commonly used transport layer protocols in computer networking. They serve different purposes and have distinct characteristics, making them suitable for different types of applications.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
Connection-Oriented
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, which means it establishes a reliable and ordered connection between the sender and receiver before data transfer begins.
Reliable
TCP guarantees that data is delivered accurately and in the correct order. It uses acknowledgments and retransmissions to ensure reliability.
Flow Control
TCP includes flow control mechanisms to prevent congestion and ensure that data is sent at an appropriate rate, considering network conditions.
Error Checking
TCP performs error checking through checksums to detect corrupted data. If data is corrupted, it requests retransmission.
TCP uses flow control and congestion mechanisms.
TCP Use Cases
TCP is suitable for applications where data integrity and reliability are critical, such as web browsing, email, file transfers, and online gaming.
One of the advantages of TCP is its in data transmission.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
Connectionless
UDP is a connectionless protocol, which means it does not establish a connection before data transfer. Each datagram (packet) is treated independently.
Unreliable
UDP does not guarantee data delivery, ordering, or reliability. It simply sends data without any acknowledgment or error recovery mechanisms.
No Flow Control
UDP does not include built-in flow control mechanisms, which means it can potentially send data at a rate that may overwhelm the receiver or the network.
No Error Checking
UDP lacks extensive error checking compared to TCP. It does have a checksum for basic error detection but does not request retransmissions for corrupted data.
UDP is connectionless and does not provide or sequencing.
UDP Use Cases
UDP is suitable for applications where real-time data transmission is more important than reliability, such as video streaming, voice-over-IP (VoIP), online gaming (for real-time game data), and DNS (Domain Name System) queries.
UDP is often used for real-time applications like streaming.
