User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

LESSON 11

Lesson 11 - (1 of 31)
 Outline:
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• Identifying Multiple • Multiplexing,
Destinations within a Host Demultiplexing, and Ports
• User Datagram • UDP Input and Output
Protocol (UDP) • UDP Port Numbers
• UDP Message Format
• UDP Pseudo-Header • TCP/IP Protocol Tracing:
• Conceptual Layering – ARP
• UDP Encapsulation – IP
• UDP / IP Integration – DNS

Lesson 11 - (2 of 31)
Identifying Multiple
Destinations within a Host:
• Software and communication protocols provide a
mechanism that distinguishes among multiple
destinations within a given host.
• Often, this mechanism is used to support transport
services for multiple applications.
• The ultimate destination in a host is not a process,
but a software Port.

Lesson 11 - (3 of 31)
Identifying Multiple
Destinations within a Host:
• Software Ports:
– A set of abstract destinations points called
protocol ports are identified by positive integer
values and controlled by the local operating
system.
• Ports are usually allocated by an operating system
to an application in the form of memory blocks,
accessed by specific data structures..

Lesson 11 - (4 of 31)
Identifying Multiple
Destinations within a Host:
• Packets arriving from the IP layer, destined for a
particular port, are enqueued within a buffer.
• Protocol ports also use outgoing queues to store
messages being sent from an application program.
• To send and receive, we need to know the source
and destination port numbers. Both are always
sent in each message.

Lesson 11 - (5 of 31)
User Datagram
Protocol (UDP):
• User Datagram Protocol (UDP):
– A connectionless, unreliable delivery service
using the IP protocol for its message transport.
– UDP distinguishes among multiple destinations
in a host, but sends no acknowledgments
(ACKs).

Lesson 11 - (6 of 31)
User Datagram
Protocol (UDP):
• Applications using UDP must handle all problems
to ensure reliable transfer. They must deal with:
– Duplicate messages.
– Lost messages.
– Delayed and Out-of-Order delivery.
• UDP is good for delay-sensitive traffic such as
video and voice since no acknowledgment or
retransmission features are used.

Lesson 11 - (7 of 31)
UDP Message Format:

• UDP messages (called user datagrams) have two

distinct parts:
– UDP Headers
– UDP Data area
• The header is always a fixed size of 4 octets,
which specifies (in part) the source and destination
protocol ports.

Lesson 11 - (8 of 31)
UDP Message Format:

0 16 31

UDP SOURCE PORT UDP DESTINATION PORT

UDP MESSAGE LENGTH UDP CHECKSUM

DATA

...

Lesson 11 - (9 of 31)
UDP Message Format:

• SOURCE PORT (16-bits):

– UDP protocol port number which specifies
where replies should be sent (optional = 0).
• DESTINATION PORT (16-bits):
– Required protocol port number to demultiplex
datagrams among waiting processes.

Lesson 11 - (10 of 31)

UDP Message Format:

• MESSAGE LENGTH (16-bits):

– The count of octets in the UDP datagram,
which includes the header and data areas.
Minimum length = 8 (length of only the
header).
• CHECKSUM (16-bits):
– The optional checksum is usually used since IP
does not compute any checksum on carried
data. Set to zero if not used.
Lesson 11 - (11 of 31)
UDP Pseudo-Header:

• UDP Pseudo-Header:
– Used to verify that the UDP datagram has
reached it’s correct destination (since UDP
headers only use port numbers).
• A checksum is computed over the pseudo-header,
UDP-header, and the data area before sending the
user datagram.

Lesson 11 - (12 of 31)

 UDP Pseudo-Header:

0 8 16 31
SOURCE IP ADDRESS
DESTINATION IP ADDRESS
PADDING PROTOCOL UDP LENGTH

Lesson 11 - (13 of 31)

UDP Pseudo-Header:

• The twelve octets of the pseudo-header include the

fields:
– Source IP address (4-octets).
– Destination IP address (4-octets).
– Padding field filled with zeros (1-octet).
– Protocol Type (1-octet), UDP = 17.

Lesson 11 - (14 of 31)

UDP Pseudo-Header:

– UDP Length (2-octets)

• Length of the UDP datagram without the
pseudo-header.
• These values are extracted from the IP datagram
header, then the checksum is recomputed (using
this pseudo-header).
• ? Is there a problem with this scenario ?

Lesson 11 - (15 of 31)

Conceptual Layering:

Application Layer
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
Internet Protocol (IP)
Network Interface and Hardware

Lesson 11 - (16 of 31)

UDP Encapsulation:

• UDP Encapsulation - [lowest layer to higher

layers] involves stripping off the headers at each
appropriate level.

• Outermost header - lowest layer protocol.

• Innermost header - highest protocol layer.

Lesson 11 - (17 of 31)

 UDP
HEADER UDP DATA AREA

IP IP DATA AREA
HEADER

FRAME
FRAME DATA AREA
HEADER

Lesson 11 - (18 of 31)

UDP Encapsulation:

• Important distinction:
– IP Layer - transferring of data between a pair of
hosts on the Internet (only responsibility).
– UDP Layer - differentiating among multiple
sources or destinations within one host only
(same for TCP as well).

Lesson 11 - (19 of 31)

UDP / IP Integration:

• UDP is tightly integrated with the IP protocol:

– This is practical.
– Produces greater efficiency.
• However, the tight integration violates our
layering abstraction and the independents of
functionality that each layer provides.

Lesson 11 - (20 of 31)

UDP / IP Integration:

• ? How does it violate the layering abstraction?

– The UDP layer encapsulates UDP messages
within an IP datagram.
– It fills in the source and destination IP header
fields.
– It computes the UDP checksum.
– It then passes the IP datagram to the IP layer,
which fills in the rest of the header fields.

Lesson 11 - (21 of 31)

Multiplexing, Demultiplexing,
and Ports:
• Applications negotiate with the operating system
to obtain a protocol port and the port number.
• UDP multiplexes application output from the
various protocol ports.
• It also demultiplexes input from the network
connection, to the appropriate receiving ports.

Lesson 11 - (22 of 31)

Port 1 Port 2 Port 3

UDP : Demultiplexing
Based On Port

UDP Datagram arrives

IP Layer

Lesson 11 - (23 of 31)

Multiplexing, Demultiplexing,
and Ports:
• Receiving packets to send to a port are:
– Normally placed in the active port’s queue.
– Dropped if the port’s queue is full.
• If the destination port is currently not in use, an
ICMP port unreachable error message is sent and
the packet is dropped.

Lesson 11 - (24 of 31)

UDP Input and Output:

• UDP does not have complex input and output

modules since it is connectionless.
• It does however have separate modules to handle
the processing required in each, as well as input
and output queues.

Lesson 11 - (25 of 31)

 UDP input

application programs
operating system ports for
UDP
datagrams

TCP Input
Process

Lesson 11 - (26 of 31)

 TCP output application programs UDP
operating system output

Control
messages

port for TCP output

TCP TCP
queue for datagrams
Timer Process sent to IP

Lesson 11 - (27 of 31)

UDP Port Numbers:

• ? How do we assign protocol port numbers ?

• Two fundamental approaches:
– Dynamic Port Binding:
• Large integer values are used to dynamically
assign a protocol port number (network
software performs the assignment).

Lesson 11 - (28 of 31)

UDP Port Numbers:

– Universal Assignment:
• Everyone agrees on allowing a central
authority to assign and publish port numbers
(software is built around
well-known port assignments).

Lesson 11 - (29 of 31)

UDP Port Numbers:

• TCP/IP takes a hybrid approach to port

assignment where it:
– Assigns lower-valued port numbers to priori
applications
– Allows the higher-valued port numbers to be
used by local sites or application programs.

Lesson 11 - (30 of 31)

UDP Port Numbers:

• ? How do we know which port to use when

requesting an application service?
– Send a port-service request message to the
destination.
– It responds by providing the appropriate
protocol port in which to send packets to.

Lesson 11 - (31 of 31)