---
title: "What are TCP and UDP?"  
description: "What are TCP and UDP?"  
author: "Sandra Emily"  
published: 2022-04-25  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96986/what-are-tcp-and-udp  
category: "troubleshooting"  
tags: ["troubleshooting", "network layer protocol", "internet", "networking"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# What are TCP and UDP?

What are [TCP](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/157829/what-is-the-osi-model-and-how-does-it-relate-to-the-tcp-ip-protocol-stack) and [UDP](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/116081/what-are-the-differences-between-tcp-and-udp-in-terms-of-osi-layers-and-reliability)?

## Answers

### Answer by Hitesh Vohra

- **TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)** is a connection-oriented protocol. The communicating devices should create a connection before transmitting data and close the connection after transmitting the data, according to connection-orientation. TCP is dependable because it ensures data delivery to the destination router. TCP has a number of error-checking methods. It is because it allows for data flow control and acknowledgement.
- **UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol.** This is due to the lack of expense associated with creating, maintaining, and terminating connections. For broadcast and multicast network transmission, UDP is a good choice. In UDP, data delivery to the destination cannot be assured. UDP only provides a checksum-based error checking mechanism.

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**Read More: [What is the difference between Hub, Switch, and Router?](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96983/what-is-the-difference-between-hub-switch-and-router)**


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Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96986/what-are-tcp-and-udp

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