Suppose I have a UDP "connection" (that is, I am communicating with another peer via UDP) with 512 byte packets (hypothetical number), and my upload bandwidth is considerably higher than the receiver's download bandwidth (let's say 25 KBps and 5 KBps, for example). If I can determine that the throughput limit is 5 KBps, how should I go about limiting the amount of data I send (as obviously I don't want to flood the receiver, while maximizing throughput)? Is it okay to send 10 packets in the first 1/5 of a second (as fast as I could upload) to the receiver and then send nothing the other 4/5 of the second, or would it be necessary to send 1 packet every 100 ms? [Edited by - Catafriggm on August 10, 2005 2:32:52 PM]

Use a version of the TCP RTO (customize it for your UDP game application). This will allow your game to optimize bandwidth and have the lowest possible latency.
Links here.

If you send more data than the pipe can handle all that will happen is the
data will be buffered. Really if you want to get the maximum bandwidth you want
to 'fill' the pipe...ie the delay bandwidth product. Not a trivial task to program
yourself...but if you are trying to do this then try to even out the data flow. Sending all the packets at once could keep the pipe filled, but at the expense of the delay in the buffering....and delay and jitter in networking can be just as bad as low bandwidth.

Quote:

Original post by stake If you send more data than the pipe can handle all that will happen is the data will be buffered.

I'm pretty sure that this is not always necessarily true with UDP. The packets can drop with no error.

Routers only have so much buffering space, and once you saturate that, you'll get dropped packets.