TCP vs UDP

TL;DR

• UDP: fire and forget.
• TCP: guaranteed delivery and the correct order of the packets.

TCP vs UDP

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

• A connection-based protocol that provides a reliable flow of data between two computers.
• Example: HTTP, FTP, Telnet
• Use socket
• Use the packet's 5-tuple (source IP address, destination IP address, source port, destination port, and protocol number) to uniquely identifies which connection it belongs to.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

• A protocol that sends independent packets of data, called datagrams, from one computer to another with no guarantees about arrival. UDP is not connection-based like TCP.
• Example: time request, ping
• Use datagram