User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol and is a communication protocol from the TCP/IP area. In the OSI layer model, the UDP protocol can be found in the fourth layer, the transport layer. The UDP protocol is connectionless and not secure. Therefore, it is mainly used for applications that have a high fault tolerance and receive and send data on a low latency. The protocol is mainly responsible for transporting data. The DNS (Domain Name Service) system as well as VPNs and other protocols make use of the UDP protocol, which uses ports to distinguish between different applications and requests from users. For the protocol to verify that data has been received correctly, it makes use of various checksums.