UDP Full Form | Full Form of UDP

UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. It’s a Transport Layer Protocol, which is a part of the internet Protocol Suite and an alternate communication protocol to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
Both UDP and TCP are transparent layers protocols which are used on the internet or run on the highest of the internet Protocol (IP) and commonly called UDP/IP and TCP/IP, respectively.
Out of those two, the UDP is the simplest transport layer protocol designed to send data over the web.
It picks the datagram from the network layer and attaches the header then forwards it to the user.

User Datagram Protocol

Characteristics of UDP

It’s a quick, unreliable, and stateless protocol that produces it suitable for use with applications that may tolerate lost data.
It will be used for transaction-based protocols, like DNS or Network Time Protocol NTP.
It are often used for settings where many clients are connected and where real-time error correction isn't must, like gaming, voice calls, or video conferencing, and streaming videos.
It's a connectionless protocol as it doesn’t need a virtual circuit before transferring the data.
It offers minimal transport service, in-order delivery isn't certain, and a congestion control mechanism is additionally not provided.
Furthermore, UDP uses headers to transfer data over connections. Its headers contain a collection of parameters called fields. A UDP header has four fields which are as follows:

Source Port : It's a 2 Byte field that tells the port number of a source.
Destination Port : It's also a 2 Byte long filed that tells the port number of the destination.
Length : It's the overall length of the UDP, including the header and also the data. It’s a 16-bits field.
Checksum : It's a 2 Byte long field that's used to check errors, e.g., it's used in IPv6 and sometimes in IPv4.

User Datagram Protocol

UDP sends a datagram (data unit) from one computer to a different using the internet Protocol.
UDP encapsulates the data during a UDP packet and adds its header information to the packet.
The data comprises source port, destination port, the packet length, and a checksum. After the UPD packets are encapsulated in an internet Protocol packet, they start moving to their destinations.

It's used for easy request-response communication where data is a smaller amount and which require one response for one request, and not much concerned with flow and error control. e.g., DNS
UDP are often used for multicasting as it supports packet switching.
It are often used by routing protocols like RIP and OSPF as they transmit less data.
It's used by Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) to send small files.
It's used by multicasting and broadcasting applications.
It will be used by streaming media like video conferencing as like speed over reliability.
Chatting, online games, and similar real-time applications use UDP.
Management protocols like SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), and Bootp or DHCP also use UDP.
Furthermore, there are various protocols that use UDP, like Kerberos, Network Time Protocol (NTP), Network News Protocol (NNP), etc.