User Datagram Protocol, which is simply known as UDP, is one of the building blocks of the series of network protocols made use for the internet, the Internal Protocol Suite.
UDP was created by David P.
Reed in the year 1980 and it was previously known as RFC 768.
At present Universal Datagram Protocol is used interchangeably with User Datagram Protocol when referring to UDP.
In addition, when combined with the Internet Protocol,
User Datagram Protocol is conveyed basically as UDP/IP.
Utilization of the UDP has been deemed to be advantageous since it allows computer applications to launch data units or datagrams to other hosts within an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
It provides small quantity of service when messages are being traded across a network of computers utilizing IP.
Establishing unique transmission channels or data paths is very much possible even without the presence of other preceding communications.
It is favorable to use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) because of its stateless feature.
Those who will benefit the most from utilizing UDP are the servers that respond to small queries coming from large number of clients.
Additionally, it is well-matched with packet broadcast, which is sending of datagram to all that are located in a specific local network.
It is also attuned with multicasting, a process that is done by sending datagrams to all the subscribers.
UDP is actually a substitute to Transmission Control Protocol or TCP.
Although UDP and TCP are similar in some ways, UDP still has its different features.
Compared to TCP, UDP is incapable of splitting up a message into series of packets.
It is also does not have the capacity to reconstruct the divided message at the receiving computer.
In simple terms, UDP does not have the feature of arranging the arriving packets of data.
UDP uses a less complicated design of data transmission, offering low level of consistency and data reliability.
Hence, it cannot grant a trustworthy service and it cannot also assure that datagrams will arrive in proper order.
In addition, the data units may also emerge with copies and some may even disappear without any warning.