Stateless Protocol

In computing, a stateless protocol is a communications protocol that treats each request as an independent transaction that is unrelated to any previous request so that the communication consists of independent pairs of requests and responses. A stateless protocol does not require the server to retain session information or status about each communications partner for the duration of multiple requests. In contrast, a protocol which requires the keeping of internal state is known as a stateful protocol.

Examples of stateless protocols include the Internet Protocol (IP) which is the foundation for the Internet, and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.