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RFC 3828 / PROTOCOL MECHANISMS

Compute the mandatory checksum

03

A pseudo-header is checksum input derived from IP, not extra bytes transmitted inside UDP-Lite. Its length is the full UDP-Lite datagram length even when coverage is partial.

RFC 3828 · § 3.2EXAMPLE
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Compute the mandatory checksumComplement the sum and place the checksum into the actual header.Sum the full context and selected prefixFolded sum C9C6One’s complementChecksum 3639Store the computed value; wire length stays25A computed0000 must be sent as FFFFTransmitted Checksum MUST NOT be0000RFC3828 · chapter3 · state4 · selected examples
04
Complement the sum and place the checksum into the actual header.

Complement the sum and place the checksum into the actual header.

Source for this drawing: RFC 3828 · Read RFC section 3.2 ↗

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KEY POINT

The checksum MUST include the pseudo-header regardless of coverage. IPv4 and IPv6 have different pseudo-header layouts; this example uses IPv4.

  • The checksum MUST include the pseudo-header regardless of coverage. IPv4 and IPv6 have different pseudo-header layouts; this example uses IPv4.
  • Set the Checksum field to zero before calculation. Sum the pseudo-header and selected prefix as16-bit words, adding a virtual zero octet for an odd byte count.
  • Take the one’s complement of the folded sum. A computed zero is transmitted as all ones (FFFF); the transmitted Checksum field MUST NOT be all zeroes.
DETAILS

Documentation addresses192.0.2.1and198.51.100.2, source port50000, destination port5004and payload bytes00..10hex are a deterministic example. Virtual padding is calculation-only; the wire datagram remains25 octets.

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