Message Transport With

The User Datagram Protocol

 User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

d Used
– During startup
– For VoIP and some video applications
d Accounts for less than 10% of Internet traffic
d Blocked by some ISPs

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 132 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Characteristics

d End-to-end
d Connectionless communication
d Message-oriented interface
d Best-effort semantics
d Arbitrary interaction
d Operating system independence
d No congestion or flow control

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 133 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 End-To-End Communication

d UDP provides communication among applications

d Sending UDP
– Accepts outgoing message from application
– Places message in a User Datagram
– Encapsulates User Datagram in an IP datagram and
sends
d Receiving UDP
– Accepts incoming User Datagram from IP
– Extracts message and delivers to receiving application
d Note: message is unchanged by the network

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 134 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Connectionless Communication

d An application using UDP can

– Send a message to any receiver (universal)
– Send at any time (asynchronous)
– Stop sending at any time (unterminated)
d That is, a sender does not
– Inform the network before sending (i.e., does not
establish a communication channel)
– Inform the other endpoint before sending
– Inform the network or other endpoint that no more
messages will be sent

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 135 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Message-Oriented Interface

d UDP
– Accepts and delivers messages (blocks of data)
– Does not require all messages to be the same size, but
does define a maximum message size
– Places each outgoing User Datagram in a single IP
datagram for transmission
– Always delivers a complete message to receiving
application
d Sending application must divide outgoing data into
messages; UDP sends what it is given (or reports an error if
the message is too large)

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 136 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Message Size

d UDP allows up to 64K octet messages

d As a practical limit, the size of a User Datagram is limited
by payload area in IP datagram
d Maximum IP payload is 64K octets minus size of IP header
d Therefore, the maximum UDP payload is 64K octets minus
size of IP and UDP headers (usually 64K octets minus 28)
d Application can choose any message size up to the
maximum UDP payload

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 137 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Large And Small Messages

d What happens if an application sends a 10K octet message?

d The message fits into an IP datagram, but... network frames
have a smaller MTU (typically 1500 octets)
d So, the result of sending a large message is

IP Fragmentation!

d What happens if an application chooses a small message

size, such as 20 octets?

Inefficiency!

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 138 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Choosing An Optimal Message Size

d What size messages should an application send?

d Optimal UDP message size is S = M – H
– M is the path MTU (i.e., minimum MTU on the path)
– H is the size of IP and UDP headers
d Finding M requires an application to
– Violate layering and obtain forwarding information from
IP
– Note: for IPv4, only the local MTU is known
d Bottom line: it may be difficult/ impossible for an
application to compute S

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 139 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Semantics

d UDP uses IP for delivery and offers the same semantics!

d UDP packet can be
– Lost
– Duplicated
– Delayed
– Delivered out of order
– Delivered with data bits altered
d Note 1: UDP does not introduce such errors; the errors arise
from the underlying networks
d Note 2: UDP does include an optional checksum to protect
the data (but the checksum may be disabled)

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 140 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Using Best-Effort Semantics

d Questions
– Do best-effort semantics make any sense for
applications?
– Why would a programmer choose UDP?
d Answers
– Retransmitting a lost message does not make sense for
real-time audio and video applications because a
retransmitted packet arrives too late to be used
– Additional real-time protocols can be added to UDP to
handle out-of-order delivery (we will cover later in the
course)

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 141 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Arbitrary Interaction

d UDP permits arbitrary interaction among applications

1-to-1
1-to-many
Many-to-1
Many-to-many

d Application programmer chooses interaction type

d Ability to send a single message to multiple recipients can
be valuable

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 142 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Efficient Implementation Of Interaction

d Key point: UDP can use IP broadcast or multicast to deliver

messages
d Provides efficient delivery to a set of hosts
d Example: UDP packet sent to IPv4 destination address
255.255.255.255 is delivered to all hosts on the local
network (IPv6 has an all nodes multicast address)
d No need for sender to transmit individual copies
d Allows application to find a server without knowing the
computer on which the server runs
d Broadcast is a significant advantage of UDP over TCP for
some applications

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 143 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Operating System Independence

d Goal is to allow applications on heterogeneous computers to

interact
d Must avoid OS-specific identifiers, such as
– Process IDs
– Task names
d Instead, create application identifiers that are not derived
from any OS

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 144 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Application Identifiers

d 16-bit integer known as UDP protocol port number

d Each application using UDP must obtain a port number
d Sending UDP
– Places a port number in UDP header to identify
destination application on receiving host
– Also includes port number of sending application
d Receiving UDP
– Uses value in header to select appropriate application

UDP protocol port numbers are universal across all computers,

and do not depend on the operating system.

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 145 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Identifying An Application

d Both sending and receiving applications need a port number

d Assignment of port numbers depends on the type of
application
d Application that offers a standardized service (server)
– Uses a well-known port number for the service
– Value is less than 1024
– Example: TFTP service uses UDP port 69
d Other applications (client)
– Request a port number from the local operating system
– Value is greater than 49151

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 146 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Steps Taken To Contact A Service

d Request an unused local port number from the local

operating system
d Obtain the IP address of the local computer from the
operating system
d Look up the port number of the service to be contacted
d Obtain the domain name of a computer that runs the service
and map to an IP address
d Form a UDP datagram with a source port field set to the
local port number and the destination port field set to the
port number of the service
d Request that the UDP datagram be encapsulated in an IP
datagram and sent using the source and destination IP
addresses obtained above
Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 147 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Examples Of Well-Known UDP Ports
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
1 Port Number 1 Description 1
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
1 1 1
1 0 1 Reserved (never assigned) 1
1 7 1 Echo 1
1 9 1 Discard 1
1 1 1
1 11 1 Active Users 1
1 13 1 Daytime 1
1 15 1 Network Status Program 1
1 17 1 Quote of the Day 1
1 1 1
1 19 1 Character Generator 1
1 37 1 Time 1
1 42 1 Host Name Server 1
1 43 1 Who Is 1
1 1 1
1 53 1 Domain Name Server 1
1 67 1 BOOTP or DHCP Server 1
1 68 1 BOOTP or DHCP Client 1
1 1 1
1 69 1 Trivial File Transfer 1
1 88 1 Kerberos Security Service 1
1 111 1 Sun Remote Procedure Call 1
1 123 1 Network Time Protocol 1
1 1 1
1 161 1 Simple Network Management Protocol 1
1 162 1 SNMP Traps 1
1 514 1 System Log 1
1222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 1 1

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 148 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Datagram Format

d Extremely thin layer

d User Datagram is divided into header and payload
d Header contains only 8 octets:
0 16 31

UDP SOURCE PORT UDP DESTINATION PORT

UDP MESSAGE LENGTH UDP CHECKSUM

PAYLOAD (MESSAGE DATA)

...

d Question: why is length needed?

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 149 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Checksum

d 16-bit 1s-complement checksum

d Covers entire UDP packet, including data (recall: IP does
not checksum the payload)
d Is optional: value of zero means sender did not compute a
checksum
d Includes extra pseudo header that contains IP addresses
d Example of IPv4 pseudo header:
0 16 31

IP SOURCE ADDRESS

IP DESTINATION ADDRESS

ZERO PROTO UDP LENGTH

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 150 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 Purpose Of A Pseudo Header

d Receiver can verify that message arrived at correct computer

as well as correct application on that computer
d Consequence for NAT: if it changes the IP source or
destination address, NAT must recompute UDP checksum
d Note: pseudo headers provide another example of layering
violations

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 151 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.

 UDP Encapsulation

d User Datagram travels in IP datagram

d Two levels of encapsulation occur

UDP Hdr UDP Payload

IP Header IP Payload

Frame Header Frame Payload

d Note: the message the application places in the UDP

Payload field may also have header and payload fields

Computer Networks and Internets -- Module 5 152 Spring, 2014

Copyright  2014. All rights reserved.