Digital Router Question:

The twin to TCP is UDP- User Datagram Protocol. Where TCP has a lot of additional under-the-hood features to make sure that everybody stays on the same page, UDP can broadcast 'into the dark'- not really caring if somebody on the other end is listening (and thus is often called a 'connectionless' protocol). As a result, the extra heavy lifting that TCP needs to do in order to create and maintain its connection isn't required so UDP oftentimes has a faster transmission speed than TCP. An easy way to picture the differences between these two protocols is like this: TCP is like a CB radio, the person transmitting is always waiting for confirmation from the person on the other end that they received the message. UDP on the other hand is like a standard television broadcast signal. The transmitter doesn't know or care about the person on the other end, all it does care about is that its signal is going out correctly. UDP is used primarily for 'small' bursts of information such as DNS requests where speed matters above nearly everything else. The above listing for TCP also contains counterparts for UDP, so it can be used as a reference for both.