Maybe just a bit of trivia, but UPnP will use HTTP formatted messages over UDP for device discovery.
http over udp is used by some torrent tracker implementations (and supporteb by all main clients)
I think some of the answers are missing an important point. The choice between UDP and TCP should not be based on the type of data (e.g., audio or video) or whether the application starts to play it before the transfer is completed ("streaming"), but whether it is real time. Real time data is (by definition) delay-sensitive, so it is often best sent over RTP/UDP (Real Time Protocol over UDP).
Delay is not an issue with stored data from a file, even if it's audio and/or video, so it is probably best sent over TCP so any packet losses can be corrected. The sender can read ahead and keep the network pipe full and the receiver can also use lots of playout buffering so it won't be interrupted by the occasional TCP retransmission or momentary network slowdown. The limiting case is where the entire recording is transferred before playback begins. This eliminates any risk of a playback stall, but is often impractical.
The problem with TCP for real-time data isn't retransmissions so much as excessive buffering as TCP tries to use the pipe as efficiently as possible without regard to latency. UDP preserves application packet boundaries and has no internal storage, so it does not introduce any latency.
Maybe just a bit of trivia, but UPnP will use HTTP formatted messages over UDP for device discovery.
UDP is the best protocol for streaming, because it doesn't make demands for missing packages like TCP. And if it doesn't make demands, the flow is far more faster and without any buffering.
Even the stream delay is lesser than TCP. That is because TCP (as a far more secure protocol) makes demands for missing packages, overwriting the existing ones.
So TCP is a protocol too advanced to be used for streaming.
The answer: Yes
Reason: See the OSI model.
Explaination:
HTTP is an application layer protocol, which could be encapsulated with a protocol that uses UDP, providing arguably faster reliable communication than TCP. The server daemon and client would obviously need to support this new protocol. Quake 2 protocol proves that UDP can be used over TCP to provide a basis for a structured communication system insuring flow control (e.g. chunk ids).
UDP is the best protocol for streaming, because it doesn't make demands for missing packages like TCP. And if it doesn't make demands, the flow is far more faster and without any buffering.
Even the stream delay is lesser than TCP. That is because TCP (as a far more secure protocol) makes demands for missing packages, overwriting the existing ones.
So TCP is a protocol too advanced to be used for streaming.
If you are streaming an mp3 or video that may not necessarily be over HTTP, in fact I'd be suprised if it was. It would probably be another protocol over TCP but I see no reason why you cannot stream over UDP.
If you do you have to take into account that there is no certainty that your data will arrive at the other end, but I can take it that you know about UDP.
To answer you question, No, HTTP does NOT use UDP. For what you talk about though, mp3/video streaming COULD happen over UDP and in my opinion should never happen over HTTP.
Maybe some change on this topic with QUIC
QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections, pronounced quick) is an experimental transport layer network protocol developed by Google and implemented in 2013. QUIC supports a set of multiplexed connections between two endpoints over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and was designed to provide security protection equivalent to TLS/SSL, along with reduced connection and transport latency, and bandwidth estimation in each direction to avoid congestion. QUIC's main goal is to optimize connection-oriented web applications currently using TCP.
In theory yes it is possible to use UDP for http but that might be problematic. Say for instance in your example a mp3 or a video is being streamed there will be problem of ordering and some bits might go missing as UDP is not connection oriented there is no retransmit mechanism.
From RFC 2616:
HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used; the mapping of the HTTP/1.1 request and response structures onto the transport data units of the protocol in question is outside the scope of this specification.
So although it doesn't explicitly say so, UDP is not used because it is not a "reliable transport".
EDIT - more recently, the QUIC protocol (which is more strictly a pseudo-transport or a session layer protocol) does use UDP for carrying HTTP/2.0 traffic and much of Google's traffic already uses this protocol. It's currently progressing towards standardisation as HTTP/3.
I think some of the answers are missing an important point. The choice between UDP and TCP should not be based on the type of data (e.g., audio or video) or whether the application starts to play it before the transfer is completed ("streaming"), but whether it is real time. Real time data is (by definition) delay-sensitive, so it is often best sent over RTP/UDP (Real Time Protocol over UDP).
Delay is not an issue with stored data from a file, even if it's audio and/or video, so it is probably best sent over TCP so any packet losses can be corrected. The sender can read ahead and keep the network pipe full and the receiver can also use lots of playout buffering so it won't be interrupted by the occasional TCP retransmission or momentary network slowdown. The limiting case is where the entire recording is transferred before playback begins. This eliminates any risk of a playback stall, but is often impractical.
The problem with TCP for real-time data isn't retransmissions so much as excessive buffering as TCP tries to use the pipe as efficiently as possible without regard to latency. UDP preserves application packet boundaries and has no internal storage, so it does not introduce any latency.
Try run HTTP over UDP with node-httpp:
If you are streaming an mp3 or video that may not necessarily be over HTTP, in fact I'd be suprised if it was. It would probably be another protocol over TCP but I see no reason why you cannot stream over UDP.
If you do you have to take into account that there is no certainty that your data will arrive at the other end, but I can take it that you know about UDP.
To answer you question, No, HTTP does NOT use UDP. For what you talk about though, mp3/video streaming COULD happen over UDP and in my opinion should never happen over HTTP.
From RFC 2616:
HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used; the mapping of the HTTP/1.1 request and response structures onto the transport data units of the protocol in question is outside the scope of this specification.
So although it doesn't explicitly say so, UDP is not used because it is not a "reliable transport".
EDIT - more recently, the QUIC protocol (which is more strictly a pseudo-transport or a session layer protocol) does use UDP for carrying HTTP/2.0 traffic and much of Google's traffic already uses this protocol. It's currently progressing towards standardisation as HTTP/3.
Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be transmitted over TCP. I implemented HTTP on top of UDP, for use in the Satellite TV Broadcasting industry.
From RFC 2616:
HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used; the mapping of the HTTP/1.1 request and response structures onto the transport data units of the protocol in question is outside the scope of this specification.
So although it doesn't explicitly say so, UDP is not used because it is not a "reliable transport".
EDIT - more recently, the QUIC protocol (which is more strictly a pseudo-transport or a session layer protocol) does use UDP for carrying HTTP/2.0 traffic and much of Google's traffic already uses this protocol. It's currently progressing towards standardisation as HTTP/3.
In theory yes it is possible to use UDP for http but that might be problematic. Say for instance in your example a mp3 or a video is being streamed there will be problem of ordering and some bits might go missing as UDP is not connection oriented there is no retransmit mechanism.
From RFC 2616:
HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used; the mapping of the HTTP/1.1 request and response structures onto the transport data units of the protocol in question is outside the scope of this specification.
So although it doesn't explicitly say so, UDP is not used because it is not a "reliable transport".
EDIT - more recently, the QUIC protocol (which is more strictly a pseudo-transport or a session layer protocol) does use UDP for carrying HTTP/2.0 traffic and much of Google's traffic already uses this protocol. It's currently progressing towards standardisation as HTTP/3.
Maybe some change on this topic with QUIC
QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections, pronounced quick) is an experimental transport layer network protocol developed by Google and implemented in 2013. QUIC supports a set of multiplexed connections between two endpoints over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and was designed to provide security protection equivalent to TLS/SSL, along with reduced connection and transport latency, and bandwidth estimation in each direction to avoid congestion. QUIC's main goal is to optimize connection-oriented web applications currently using TCP.
Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be transmitted over TCP. I implemented HTTP on top of UDP, for use in the Satellite TV Broadcasting industry.
(This is an old question, but it deserves an updated answer.)
In all likelihood, HTTP/3 will be using the QUIC protocol, which is described as
multiplexed transport over UDP
So, from a certain point of view, you could say that HTTP/3 will be using UDP.
Yes, HTTP, as an application protocol, can be transferred over UDP transport protocol. Here are some of the services that use UDP and an underlying protocol for transferring HTTP data and streaming it to the end-user:
This article contains further details on streaming over UDP and its reliable superset, the RUDP: Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol?
Try run HTTP over UDP with node-httpp:
If you are streaming an mp3 or video that may not necessarily be over HTTP, in fact I'd be suprised if it was. It would probably be another protocol over TCP but I see no reason why you cannot stream over UDP.
If you do you have to take into account that there is no certainty that your data will arrive at the other end, but I can take it that you know about UDP.
To answer you question, No, HTTP does NOT use UDP. For what you talk about though, mp3/video streaming COULD happen over UDP and in my opinion should never happen over HTTP.
http over udp is used by some torrent tracker implementations (and supporteb by all main clients)
If you are streaming an mp3 or video that may not necessarily be over HTTP, in fact I'd be suprised if it was. It would probably be another protocol over TCP but I see no reason why you cannot stream over UDP.
If you do you have to take into account that there is no certainty that your data will arrive at the other end, but I can take it that you know about UDP.
To answer you question, No, HTTP does NOT use UDP. For what you talk about though, mp3/video streaming COULD happen over UDP and in my opinion should never happen over HTTP.
Yes, HTTP, as an application protocol, can be transferred over UDP transport protocol. Here are some of the services that use UDP and an underlying protocol for transferring HTTP data and streaming it to the end-user:
This article contains further details on streaming over UDP and its reliable superset, the RUDP: Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol?
Maybe just a bit of trivia, but UPnP will use HTTP formatted messages over UDP for device discovery.
(This is an old question, but it deserves an updated answer.)
In all likelihood, HTTP/3 will be using the QUIC protocol, which is described as
multiplexed transport over UDP
So, from a certain point of view, you could say that HTTP/3 will be using UDP.
The answer: Yes
Reason: See the OSI model.
Explaination:
HTTP is an application layer protocol, which could be encapsulated with a protocol that uses UDP, providing arguably faster reliable communication than TCP. The server daemon and client would obviously need to support this new protocol. Quake 2 protocol proves that UDP can be used over TCP to provide a basis for a structured communication system insuring flow control (e.g. chunk ids).
Source: Stackoverflow.com