Connectionless Transport

Connectionless Transport
Sometimes the need for reliable data transfer is overridden by another, more pressing requirement.
If the protocol in question uses broadcasts to deliver its data, then we cannot reasonably
expect acknowledgments. It’s bad enough that every station on the segment is interrupted by the
original broadcast, without compounding the felony! Protocols such as RIP (Routing Information
Protocol), the ubiquitous routing protocol) operate like this, resending their data at regular
intervals to ensure that data gets through.
Another family of protocols that remain connectionless are the multicasts. Multicast traffic
(as we know from Chapter 19, “Understanding and Configuring Multicast Operation”) is delivered
to stations that have joined a particular multicast group. Once again, it would be unreasonable
to expect acknowledgments from such a potentially large receiver group, but there are
additional factors.
Multicast streams often contain either time-sensitive or streaming information. In either
case, the delays associated with acknowledgments would be unacceptable, interfering with the
flow of the data.