TCP or UDP, which would you choose?

[Anonymous]

Hypothetical situation: let's say the population explodes and the Internet becomes just too damn busy. The world has to decide between TCP and UDP.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides error correction and transmission of data packets over the Internet, should datagrams be delivered improperly. Some common uses are file transfer, hypertext transfer, and email.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) avoids the overhead of error checks and retransmision. Because of its speed, it's used for query/response protocols such as domain name systems and also for voice transmission.

TCP

UDP

[sawno]

Tech geek and server hoster here, UDP 100%.
UDP over TCP is terrible, and you'd want to be able to power realtime applications where latency matters.
If TCP is gone applications would have to do handshakes and fault tolleration on their own, but at least thats doable and TCP over UDP can be done much more reliably.

[Asker]

Both protocols are application layer, so what I'm suggesting is it has to be one or the other. The applications are allowed to do re-transmissions or acknowledgements. I was imagining a world where, for example, you're watching a video and instead of waiting for the reliable transmission, you just skip the parts you don't have access to.

[Asker]

*not allowed

[DJaQueef]

Can't we just use toilets?

[DonkeyDan]

Data is useless without verification.

[Asker]

Both protocols verify the data. It's just that UDP sends it in order and doesn't care if you get it or not.