Why HTTP Uses TCP Over UDP, and How HTTP/3 Changes the Equation

HTTP has traditionally relied on TCP because the protocol guarantees reliable, ordered delivery of data packets across the internet. Without TCP, issues like lost packets, duplicated data, or out-of-order delivery would require HTTP itself to handle retransmission and reassembly. Plain UDP offers no such guarantees, meaning a missing packet would go undetected and unrecovered at the transport layer. HTTP/3, however, breaks from this pattern by running over UDP — but it does so through QUIC, a protocol that rebuilds TCP-like reliability, ordering, and congestion control on top of UDP. This approach retains UDP's performance advantages while preserving the dependability that web communication requires.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.
Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in