Q: What is the summary of differences between TCP and UDP?
A: The key differences are:
- Connection: TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, meaning a connection must be established before data is sent. UDP is a connectionless protocol.
- Reliability: TCP provides reliable data transfer through acknowledgements and retransmissions. UDP does not guarantee delivery.
- Speed: UDP is faster than TCP because it lacks the overhead of connection setup and reliability mechanisms.
- Bandwidth: TCP has built-in congestion control to dynamically adjust its transmission rate based on network conditions. UDP does not have this feature.
- Use Cases: TCP is used for applications that require reliable, in-order delivery, such as email, file transfer, and web browsing. UDP is used for speed-critical and real-time applications, such as video streaming, gaming, and VoIP.