Which one is a connectionless transport - layer protocol that belongs to the…

Answer: User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

Why this is correct: UDP is a connectionless transport-layer protocol in the Internet protocol family. It sends independent datagrams without establishing or maintaining a connection between endpoints.

• No connection setup: packets are sent independently (no handshake).

• Unreliable and unordered: no automatic acknowledgments, retransmissions, or ordering guarantees.

• Low overhead: small header and minimal state, useful for latency-sensitive or simple request-response applications.

• Common uses: DNS queries, streaming media, VoIP, and some online games.

Contrast with Transmission Control Protocol (TCP):

TCP is connection-oriented and provides reliability, ordering, flow control, and congestion control, so it is not connectionless.

Notes on the other choices:

• Routing protocols operate at the network layer and are not transport-layer protocols.

• The name "Datagram Control Protocol (DCP)" is not a standard Internet transport protocol. A different protocol, Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP), does exist but serves a different purpose.