Which transport layer protocol is used to form LDP sessions?

LDP multicasts hello messages to a well-known UDP port (646) in order to discover neighbors. Once the discovery is accomplished, a TCP connection (port 646) is established and the LDP session begins. LDP keepalives ensure the health of the session. Thanks to the LDP session, LDP messages create the label mappings required for a FEC. Withdraw messages are used when FECs need to be torn down.