Consider a DNS system, one where a client sends a request to a server, and expects a small amount of data in return. A diagram of the transaction can be seen in figure 5.1. This diagram is very similar to a UDP request. In comparison to the TCP 3-Way Handshake in figure 4.2 it can be seen that there is a big difference in the number of packets that are required for this transaction and the 3-Way Handshake. Whereas with TCP there are three round trips associated with the establishment of a connection alone, there are in total three round trips associated with the whole process in this case (obviously in cases where a large amount of data is being transferred, there will be more packets transmitted).
Timing experiments have shown that there is a slightly longer time required for T/TCP than for UDP ([STEVENS] page 21), but this is a result of the speed of the computer, and not the network. As computers get more powerful, the performance of T/TCP will approach that of UDP.
