Question

Difficulty: HardTCP vs UDP Comparison and Protocols

An application developer is configuring a telemetry collection service across a branch network. The service requires low transmission latency and minimal protocol processing overhead for periodic 50-byte metric updates. The developer selects User Datagram Protocol (UDP) instead of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Which characteristic of UDP directly accounts for its lower protocol overhead compared to TCP?

  1. UDP utilizes a fixed 8-byte header structure without connection establishment states or sequence tracking mechanisms.Answer
  2. B
    UDP incorporates dynamic window size fields to continuously optimize throughput based on receiver buffer capacity.
  3. C
    UDP reduces transmission delay by maintaining a 20-byte header that relies on cumulative acknowledgments.
  4. D
    UDP relies on hardware-level sequence numbers to reorder out-of-sequence datagrams without software intervention.

Answer

UDP utilizes a fixed 8-byte header structure without connection establishment states or sequence tracking mechanisms.
UDP reduces protocol overhead because its header is fixed at 8 bytes (containing only Source Port, Destination Port, Length, and Checksum) and it operates without connection setup (handshake), sequencing, or flow control state tracking.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze transport protocol header overhead requirements.
TCP headers have a minimum size of 20 bytes, whereas UDP headers are fixed at 8 bytes.
Lower header overhead reduces bandwidth consumption for small payloads.
2
Evaluate transport protocol state tracking mechanisms.
TCP requires a 3-way handshake and tracks sequence/acknowledgment numbers, whereas UDP is connectionless and stateless.
Stateless transmission eliminates latency introduced by connection setup and flow control control loops.

Key Concept

Transport Layer Protocol Overhead and Header Comparison
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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