UDP
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | User Datagram Protocol |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol, a networking abbreviation.
A lightweight transport protocol that sends independent datagrams without setting up a connection, confirming delivery or guaranteeing order. Its low overhead suits DNS lookups, video calls, online games and live streaming, where a late packet is worthless and speed matters more than perfect reliability.
Example: Open UDP port 3478 on the office firewall so the video-conferencing client can connect.
Usage notes
Specified in RFC 768 in August 1980, a document only three pages long. The UDP header is 8 bytes, compared with at least 20 for TCP. Because UDP has no handshake, source addresses are easy to spoof, which makes open UDP services such as DNS and NTP servers popular tools for amplification DDoS attacks. HTTP/3 builds its own reliability layer, QUIC, on top of UDP.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- STP – Shielded twisted pair
- STUN – Session Traversal Utilities for NAT
- TCP – Transmission Control Protocol
- TCP/IP – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
- TFTP – Trivial File Transfer Protocol
- TTL – Time to live
- UPnP – Universal Plug and Play
- UTP – Unshielded twisted pair
- VLAN – Virtual LAN
- VNC – Virtual Network Computing
- VPN – Virtual private network
- VXLAN – Virtual Extensible LAN