Search code examples
tcpudp

Advantages of UDP over TCP?

TCP has a greater computation overhead to ensure reliable delivery of packets. But, since modern networks are fast, is there any scenario in which performance of UDP outweighs the reliability of TCP?

Is there any other particular advantage of UDP over TCP?

Solution

  • I can see two cases, where UDP would have an upper hand over TCP.

    First, one of the attractive features of UDP is that since it does not need to retransmit lost packets nor does it do any connection setup, sending data incurs less delay. This lower delay makes UDP an appealing choice for delay-sensitive applications like audio and video.

    Second, multicast applications are built on top of UDP since they have to do point to multipoint. Using TCP for multicast applications would be hard since now the sender would have to keep track of retransmissions/sending rate for multiple receivers.