TCP vs UDP Which is Best

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

This article describes how TCP and UDP work, the difference between the two, and why you would choose one over the other.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is the most commonly used protocol on the Internet. The reason for this is because TCP offers error correction. When the TCP protocol is used there is a "guaranteed delivery." This is due largely in part to a method called "flow control." Flow control determines when data needs to be re-sent, and stops the flow of data until previous packets are successfully transferred. This works because if a packet of data is sent, a collision may occur. When this happens, the client re-requests the packet from the server until the whole packet is complete and is identical to its original.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is anther commonly used protocol on the Internet. However, UDP is never used to send important data such as webpages, database information, etc; UDP is commonly used for streaming audio and video. Streaming media such as Windows Media audio files (.WMA) , Real Player (.RM), and others use UDP because it offers speed! The reason UDP is faster than TCP is because there is no form of flow control or error correction. The data sent over the Internet is affected by collisions, and errors will be present. Remember that UDP is only concerned with speed. This is the main reason why streaming media is not high quality.

On the contrary, UDP has been implemented among some trojan horse viruses. Hackers develop scripts and trojans to run over UDP in order to mask their activities. UDP packets are also used in DoS (Denial of Service) attacks. It is important to know the difference between TCP port 80 and UDP port 80. If you don't know what ports are go here.

Frame Structure

As data moves along a network, various attributes are added to the file to create a frame. This process is called encapsulation. There are different methods of encapsulation depending on which protocol and topology are being used. As a result, the frame structure of these packets differ as well. The images below show both the TCP and UDP frame structures.

TCP FRAME STRUCTURE

UDP FRAME STRUCTURE

The payload field contains the actually data. Notice that TCP has a more complex frame structure. This is largely due to the fact the TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. The extra fields are need to ensure the "guaranteed delivery" offered by TCP.

Core Java Interview Questions with Answers

Thursday, October 22, 2009

41. What is the catch or declare rule for method declarations?

If a checked exception may be thrown within the body of a method, the method must either catch the exception or declare it in its throws clause.

42. What is the difference between a MenuItem and a CheckboxMenuItem?

The CheckboxMenuItem class extends the MenuItem class to support a menu item that may be checked or unchecked.

43. What is a task's priority and how is it used in scheduling?

A task's priority is an integer value that identifies the relative order in which it should be executed with respect to other tasks. The scheduler attempts to schedule higher priority tasks before lower priority tasks.

44. What class is the top of the AWT event hierarchy?

The java.awt.AWTEvent class is the highest-level class in the AWT event-class hierarchy.

45. When a thread is created and started, what is its initial state?

A thread is in the ready state after it has been created and started.

46. Can an anonymous class be declared as implementing an interface and extending a class?

An anonymous class may implement an interface or extend a superclass, but may not be declared to do both.

47. What is the range of the short type?

The range of the short type is -(2^15) to 2^15 - 1.

48. What is the range of the char type?

The range of the char type is 0 to 2^16 - 1.

49. In which package are most of the AWT events that support the event-delegation model defined?

Most of the AWT-related events of the event-delegation model are defined in the java.awt.event package. The AWTEvent class is defined in the java.awt package.

50. What is the immediate superclass of Menu?

MenuItem

51. What is the purpose of finalization?

The purpose of finalization is to give an unreachable object the opportunity to perform any cleanup processing before the object is garbage collected.

52. Which class is the immediate superclass of the MenuComponent class.

Object

53. What invokes a thread's run() method?

After a thread is started, via its start() method or that of the Thread class, the JVM invokes the thread's run() method when the thread is initially executed.

54. What is the difference between the Boolean & operator and the && operator?

If an expression involving the Boolean & operator is evaluated, both operands are evaluated. Then the & operator is applied to the operand. When an expression involving the && operator is evaluated, the first operand is evaluated. If the first operand returns a value of true then the second operand is evaluated. The && operator is then applied to the first and second operands. If the first operand evaluates to false, the evaluation of the second operand is skipped.

55. Name three subclasses of the Component class.

Box.Filler, Button, Canvas, Checkbox, Choice, Container, Label, List, Scrollbar, or TextComponent

56. What is the GregorianCalendar class?

The GregorianCalendar provides support for traditional Western calendars.

57. Which Container method is used to cause a container to be laid out and redisplayed?

validate()

58. What is the purpose of the Runtime class?

The purpose of the Runtime class is to provide access to the Java runtime system.

59. How many times may an object's finalize() method be invoked by the garbage collector?

An object's finalize() method may only be invoked once by the garbage collector.

60. What is the purpose of the finally clause of a try-catch-finally statement?

The finally clause is used to provide the capability to execute code no matter whether or not an exception is thrown or caught.

To be Continued