IETF 115: Technology Deep Dive on QUIC

QUIC is an innovative new transport protocol for sending data over the Internet. It provides lower delay, improved security, and more robust delivery of data, resulting in better web application performance, security, and privacy. QUIC was published as an open standard by the IETF last year and is already widely deployed.

Already used by a range of Internet services, an initial version of QUIC was designed and tested by Google and then proposed to IETF for standardization. Over the past 5 years it was reviewed, redesigned and improved in the IETF, incorporating a broad range of input from across the industry. QUIC is an important example of a range of innovation in core Internet technologies underway in the IETF. QUIC is a general transport protocol and HTTP/3 is the first application protocol designed for use over QUIC.

The IETF Technology Deep Dive covering QUIC took place over two sessions at the IETF 115 meeting.

At 08:00 - 09:00 GMT on 7 November, Lucas Pardue gave a technical introduction to QUIC: what it is (a new encrypted transport protocol lightly integrated with, but separate from, HTTP/3) , what it isn’t (“the web over UDP”), and why it’s important (it provides a basis for evolution at Layer 4 that has proven largely impossible over the past four decades).

During the second session at 07:30 - 09:00 on 8 November, Martin Thomson explored the layering of QUIC and its relationship with TLS, and the details of what an encrypted transport is and how it works. The session concluded with a question and answer panel with the speakers, moderated by Brian Trammell.