UDP packets are used to send data from one computer to another over a network or from one application to another within a single computer. The py_udp programs enable Matlab to send and/or receive UDP packets. One Matlab session can communicate with another Matlab session (on the same machine or over the network) or it can communicate with a completely different program (again, on the same machine or over the network).

The py_udp programs use the UDP utilities from the Python programming language to send and receive UDP packets, so Python must be installed on the computer running Matlab.

The py_udp programs are very simple and can be considered as a lightweight alternative to the more feature-rich TCP/UDP/IP Toolbox written by Peter Rydesäter or to Mathworks' own Instrument Control Toolbox.

The py_udp programs are not suitable for large volumes of data because they create a new Python session for each packet sent or received; communicating at more than about 1 packet per second will almost certainly cause your computer to become very sluggish. For things like sending occasional notifications to another program, however, this
will not be an issue; users wanting to "stream" larger quantities of data should consider using the TCP/UDP/IP Toolbox or Instrument Control Toolbox instead.