TCP vs UDP: A Deep Dive into Transport Layer Protocols
Introduction When you browse the web, stream a video, or make a VoIP call, data is moving across the Internet in packets. Those packets travel through the transport layer of the TCP/IP stack, where two foundational protocols decide how the data is delivered: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Both protocols are ubiquitous, yet they embody dramatically different design philosophies. TCP promises reliability, ordering, and congestion control at the cost of latency and overhead. UDP, by contrast, offers a lightweight, connection‑less service that delivers packets “as fast as possible,” leaving reliability to the application. ...