Connectionless sockets (Internet domain)

To this point we have been concerned mostly with sockets which



follow a connection-oriented model. However, data can be transmitted without a direct connection by using datagram sockets.

UDP datagram sockets provide only connectionless interactions. When using datagram sockets, the programmer does not have to issue a connect call before sending. A datagram socket provides a symmetric interface to data exchange. Datagram processes are still likely to be client and server, but there is no requirement for connection establishment. Each message includes the destination address.