Since RDP 8 -> TCP and UDP are available transport protocols

Mona Lippert-Winkel
2022-07-05 15:34

What are the benefits of using UDP in RDP sessions and what you need to know.


TCP: guarantees delivery of all RDP packages - for less-reliable networks with high latency and/or higher packet loss rates.
UDP: overcomes this issues, reliable delivery of UDP packets are not guaranteed, so only recommended if the connection excellent.
So it is up to the application to handle missing packages (re-transmission, error correction, etc.)

You can configure the used protocol in the Group Policies
Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates/ Windows Components/ Remote Desktop Services/ Remote Desktop Session Host/ Connections/ "Select RDP transport protocols"

 

Some hints:

Verify that your RD clients support RDP 8 or later. For the Windows RDP Client -->  the client operating system should be Windows 8 or Windows 10.
For Windows 7 clients you have to apply the RDP 8 update accordingly.
Same with client running  Android, iOSx  - ensure that at least RDP 8 is supported.

If you use UDP for remote connections you have to know that this is not supported by default when you use RD Gateway
--> need to be enabled in RS Gateway Properties (check "Enable UDP transport")

If you DO NOT use the RD Gateway, you will need to configure the corporate firewall to pass through UDP traffic alongside TCP traffic over port 3389 (per default - of course this port can be changed)

UDP may boost effective throughput, but will also increase the amount of bandwidth for RDP traffic (so not recommend over low-bandwidth or saturated networks)

Tags: Gateway, protocol, RDP, TCP, transport, UDP