DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TCP & UDP (TCP v/s UDP)

	TCP	UDP
Acronym for	Transmission Control Protocol	User Datagram Protocol or Universal Datagram Protocol
Connection	TCP is a connection-oriented protocol.	UDP is a connectionless protocol.
Function	As a message makes its way across the internet from one computer to another. This is connection based.	UDP is also a protocol used in message transport or transfer. This is not connection based which means that one program can send a load of packets to another and that would be the end of the relationship.
Usage	TCP is suited for applications that require high reliability, and transmission time is relatively less critical.	UDP is suitable for applications that need fast, efficient transmission, such as games. UDP's stateless nature is also useful for servers that answer small queries from huge numbers of clients.
Use by other protocols	HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, SMTP, Telnet	DNS, DHCP, TFTP, SNMP, RIP, VOIP.
Ordering of data packets	TCP rearranges data packets in the order specified.	UDP has no inherent order as all packets are independent of each other. If ordering is required, it has to be managed by the application layer.
Speed of transfer	The speed for TCP is slower than UDP.	UDP is faster because there is no error-checking for packets.
Reliability	There is absolute guarantee that the data transferred remains intact and arrives in the same order in which it was sent.	There is no guarantee that the messages or packets sent would reach at all.
Header Size	TCP header size is 20 bytes	UDP Header size is 8 bytes.
Common Header Fields	Source port, Destination port, Check Sum	Source port, Destination port, Check Sum
Streaming of data	Data is read as a byte stream, no distinguishing indications are transmitted to signal message (segment) boundaries.	Packets are sent individually and are checked for integrity only if they arrive. Packets have definite boundaries which are honored upon receipt, meaning a read operation at the receiver socket will yield an entire message as it was originally sent.
Weight	TCP is heavy-weight. TCP requires three packets to set up a socket connection, before any user data can be sent. TCP handles reliability and congestion control.	UDP is lightweight. There is no ordering of messages, no tracking connections, etc. It is a small transport layer designed on top of IP.
Data Flow Control	TCP does Flow Control. TCP requires three packets to set up a socket connection, before any user data can be sent. TCP handles reliability and congestion control.	UDP does not have an option for flow control
Error Checking	TCP does error checking	UDP does error checking, but no recovery options.
Fields	1. Sequence Number, 2. AcK number, 3. Data offset, 4. Reserved, 5. Control bit, 6. Window, 7. Urgent Pointer 8. Options, 9. Padding, 10. Check Sum, 11. Source port, 12. Destination port	1. Length, 2. Source port, 3. Destination port, 4. Check Sum
Acknowledgement	Acknowledgement segments	No Acknowledgment
Handshake	SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK	No handshake (connectionless protocol)