QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport

QUIC is a multiplexed and secure transport protocol that runs on top of UDP. QUIC builds on past transport experience, and implements mechanisms that make it useful as a modern general-purpose transport protocol. Using UDP as the basis of QUIC is intended to address compatibility issues with legacy clients and middleboxes. QUIC authenticates all of its headers, preventing third parties from from changing them. QUIC encrypts most of its headers, thereby limiting protocol evolution to QUIC endpoints only. Therefore, middleboxes, in large part, are not required to be updated as new protocol versions are deployed. This document describes the core QUIC protocol, including the conceptual design, wire format, and mechanisms of the QUIC protocol for connection establishment, stream multiplexing, stream and connection-level flow control, and data reliability. Accompanying documents describe QUIC's loss recovery and congestion control, and the use of TLS 1.3 for key negotiation.