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1 April RFC



IETF RFC 768

User Datagram Protocol

Last modified on Thursday, October 15th, 1992

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RFC 768                                                        J. Postel
                                                                     ISI
                                                          28 August 1980



                         User Datagram Protocol
                         ----------------------

Introduction
------------

This User Datagram  Protocol  (UDP)  is  defined  to  make  available  a
datagram   mode  of  packet-switched   computer   communication  in  the
environment  of  an  interconnected  set  of  computer  networks.   This
protocol  assumes  that the Internet  Protocol  (IP)  [1] is used as the
underlying protocol.

This protocol  provides  a procedure  for application  programs  to send
messages  to other programs  with a minimum  of protocol mechanism.  The
protocol  is transaction oriented, and delivery and duplicate protection
are not guaranteed.  Applications requiring ordered reliable delivery of
streams of data should use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) [2].

Format
------

                                    
                  0      7 8     15 16    23 24    31  
                 +--------+--------+--------+--------+ 
                 |     Source      |   Destination   | 
                 |      Port       |      Port       | 
                 +--------+--------+--------+--------+ 
                 |                 |                 | 
                 |     Length      |    Checksum     | 
                 +--------+--------+--------+--------+ 
                 |                                     
                 |          data octets ...            
                 +---------------- ...                 

                      User Datagram Header Format

Fields
------

Source Port is an optional field, when meaningful, it indicates the port
of the sending  process,  and may be assumed  to be the port  to which a
reply should  be addressed  in the absence of any other information.  If
not used, a value of zero is inserted.





Postel                                                          [page 1]


28 Aug 1980 User Datagram Protocol RFC 768 Fields Destination Port has a meaning within the context of a particular internet destination address. Length is the length in octets of this user datagram including this header and the data. (This means the minimum value of the length is eight.) Checksum is the 16-bit one's complement of the one's complement sum of a pseudo header of information from the IP header, the UDP header, and the data, padded with zero octets at the end (if necessary) to make a multiple of two octets. The pseudo header conceptually prefixed to the UDP header contains the source address, the destination address, the protocol, and the UDP length. This information gives protection against misrouted datagrams. This checksum procedure is the same as is used in TCP. 0 7 8 15 16 23 24 31 +--------+--------+--------+--------+ | source address | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ | destination address | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ | zero |protocol| UDP length | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ If the computed checksum is zero, it is transmitted as all ones (the equivalent in one's complement arithmetic). An all zero transmitted checksum value means that the transmitter generated no checksum (for debugging or for higher level protocols that don't care). User Interface -------------- A user interface should allow the creation of new receive ports, receive operations on the receive ports that return the data octets and an indication of source port and source address, and an operation that allows a datagram to be sent, specifying the data, source and destination ports and addresses to be sent. [page 2] Postel

28 Aug 1980 RFC 768 User Datagram Protocol IP Interface IP Interface ------------- The UDP module must be able to determine the source and destination internet addresses and the protocol field from the internet header. One possible UDP/IP interface would return the whole internet datagram including all of the internet header in response to a receive operation. Such an interface would also allow the UDP to pass a full internet datagram complete with header to the IP to send. The IP would verify certain fields for consistency and compute the internet header checksum. Protocol Application -------------------- The major uses of this protocol is the Internet Name Server [3], and the Trivial File Transfer [4]. Protocol Number --------------- This is protocol 17 (21 octal) when used in the Internet Protocol. Other protocol numbers are listed in [5]. References ---------- [1] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol," RFC 760, USC/Information Sciences Institute, January 1980. [2] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol," RFC 761, USC/Information Sciences Institute, January 1980. [3] Postel, J., "Internet Name Server," USC/Information Sciences Institute, IEN 116, August 1979. [4] Sollins, K., "The TFTP Protocol," Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IEN 133, January 1980. [5] Postel, J., "Assigned Numbers," USC/Information Sciences Institute, RFC 762, January 1980. Postel [page 3]

User Datagram Protocol RFC TOTAL SIZE: 5896 bytes PUBLICATION DATE: Thursday, October 15th, 1992 LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)


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© RFC 768: The IETF Trust, Thursday, October 15th, 1992
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