Unreliable Communication Layers
Discover how unreliable communication layers such as UDP function within distributed systems, including how packet loss occurs and why applications may use these layers. Understand the role of checksums in detecting data corruption and the balance between checksum effectiveness and performance.
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As we discussed in the last lesson, packet loss is very common in networking. One simple way is this: we don’t deal with it. Because some applications know how to deal with packet loss, it is sometimes useful to let them communicate with a basic unreliable messaging layer, an example of the end-to-end argument one often hears about (see the Aside in this later lesson of the chapter).
Example of unreliable communication layer: UDP/IP
One excellent example of such an unreliable layer is found in the UDP/IP networking stack available today on ...