UDP Packets

UDP is a “connectionless” protocol. Unlike TCP, UDP does not check that data arrived at the receiving host. Instead, UDP formats the message that is received from the application layer into UDP packets. UDP attaches a header to each packet. The header contains the sending and receiving host ports, a field with the length of the packet, and a checksum.

The sending UDP process attempts to send the packet to its peer UDP process on the receiving host. The application layer determines whether the receiving UDP process acknowledges the reception of the packet. UDP requires no notification of receipt. UDP does not use the three-way handshake.