UDP Operation

UDP is so simple that I can't say a great deal about how it works. It is designed to do as little as possible.

What UDP Does

UDP's only real task is to take data from higher-layer protocols and place it in UDP messages, which are then passed down to IP for transmission. The basic steps for transmission using UDP are as follows:

  1. Higher-Layer Data Transfer An application sends a message to the UDP software.

  2. UDP Message Encapsulation The higher-layer message is encapsulated into the Data field of a UDP message. The headers of the UDP message are filled in, including the Source Port field of the application that sent the data to UDP and the Destination Port field of the intended recipient. The checksum value may also be calculated.

  3. Transfer ...

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