| Protocol |
Strengths |
Limitations |
Net-VE characteristics |
TCP
|
Guaranteed packet delivery
Ordered Packet Delivery
Packet checksum checking
Transmission flow control
Ubiquitous, with many firewalls supporting outbound connections
|
Only supports points to points connectivity
Bandwidth overhead
Packet may be delayed to preserve ordering guarantees
|
Virtual environments having relatively small number of hosts and limited
data requirements
Typically used in client-server configuration,
and over public Internet
Relatively easy for the programmers
|
UDP
|
Packet-based data transmission
Low overhead
Immediate delivery
Nearly Ubiquitous, but firewalls are often problematic
|
Only supports point to point connectivity
No reliability guarantees
No ordering guarantees
Packet corruption possible
|
Virtual environments having higher data requirements; used in both client-server
and peer to peer configurations
|
IP Broadcasting
|
Same as UDP, except simultaneous delivery to multiple hosts
|
Same as UDP,except scope limited to local networks
|
Small-scale peer to peer net-VEs with high data requirements and time
sensitive data delivery needs
|
IP Multicasting
|
Same as IP Broadcasting except efficient Internet-wide delivery
|
Same as UDP, except only available from / to Internet hosts connected
to the MBone
|
Large Scale peer to peer and client server net-VEs, particularly over
the Internet
|