Transport layer protocols

The transport layer protocols include TCP and UDP used to transport application protocols.

User Datagram Protocol

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is considered an unreliable transport. In this, there's no guarantee of packet delivery or ordering, but it has a lower overhead and is used by time-sensitive applications such as voice and video traffic.

The following screenshot shows the fields contained in an UDP header:

User Datagram Protocol

The UDP header is only 8-bytes long, consisting of:

  • Source and Destination port number: This is 2 bytes each.
  • Length: This is the length of the UDP header plus the payload. This is a 2-byte field.
  • Checksum: This ...

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