Final answer:
Buffers used when an application writes to a UDP socket are primarily the operating system's send and receive buffers. These buffers ensure that data is temporarily stored before transmission or prior to being processed by the application, assisting in asynchronous network communication. Despite UDP's connectionless nature, these buffers play a key role in managing data flow.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Buffers in UDP Socket Operations
When an application writes to a UDP socket, several buffers are involved in the process. These buffers, which temporarily store data before it's sent over the network or after it's been received by the network stack but before the application has processed it, are essential for handling network I/O operations. The main buffers involved are the operating system's send buffer and receive buffer.
The send buffer aggregates the outgoing data until it is sent onto the network by the operating system's networking stack. In contrast, the receive buffer holds the incoming data until the application is ready to process it. Both buffers help manage data flow and accommodate network and process speed differences.
Since UDP is a connectionless protocol, there's no guarantee of delivery, and as such, the buffers do not have to account for retransmission like in TCP. However, these buffers are still crucial as they are the interface between the application and the network, allowing the application to handle network data asynchronously, without needing to wait for network operations to complete.