Episode 66: Connection-Oriented vs. Connectionless — Making Sense of Transport Styles
Not all network communications are created equal. In this episode, we explore the fundamental differences between connection-oriented and connectionless communication. You'll learn how connection-oriented methods like TCP establish a session before transmitting data, ensuring reliability and ordered delivery. We explore the scenarios where this is essential—such as banking, file transfers, and secure login processes—because each bit of information must arrive intact and acknowledged.
In contrast, we examine connectionless protocols like UDP that send data without verifying receipt, making them more efficient for use cases like video streaming, voice calls, and DNS queries. You'll also learn how each style affects performance, error handling, and bandwidth usage. By understanding when and why to use each approach, you'll be able to evaluate application behavior more effectively and troubleshoot issues more intelligently. This episode reinforces your knowledge of the transport layer and how protocol design affects data flow.
