eli5: What really happens under the hood when we get to video chat in real time to someone that is on other side of world?

Question

I’m wondering how is this information actually transferred, how it can be that fast that we can see without any latency at all.

Thanks in advance,

In: 20

Answer 1

There are different types of connections made over the internet, the two primary ones are TCP & UDP. The acryonm meanings arent all that important, compared to how they function.

TCP is what’s known as a “connection-oriented” protocol. It ensures data integrity, this is important for things like email or file downloads, where you dont want to miss bits of data. TCP is also slow, as it takes time and multiple back & forths to ensure all the data arrived, in order and unaltered.

UDP on the other hand is a stateless protocol, more of a “fire & forget” data stream. The sending device doesnt care if the receiver gets it all, it just keeps sending data. It’s used for streaming, audio calls, webcams, & the like. Without spending time & power verifying every last bit arrived intact and in order, it’s fast enough to keep up for audio-visual purposes.

Network infrastructure & especially cabling have also improved tremendously over the last 30 years to carry signals