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QUIC, a multiplexed transport over UDP

QUIC is a new multiplexed transport built on top of UDP. HTTP/3 is designed to take advantage of QUIC's features, including lack of Head-Of-Line blocking between streams.

The QUIC project started as an alternative to TCP+TLS+HTTP/2, with the goal of improving user experience, particularly page load times. The QUIC working group at the IETF defined a clear boundary between the transport(QUIC) and application(HTTP/3) layers, as well as migrating from QUIC Crypto to TLS 1.3.

Because TCP is implemented in operating system kernels and middleboxes, widely deploying significant changes to TCP is next to impossible. However, since QUIC is built on top of UDP and the transport functionality is encrypted, it suffers from no such limitations.

Key features of QUIC and HTTP/3 over TCP+TLS and HTTP/2 include

IETF documents

Documentation

Pre-Working Group IETF Material

Video

Code

Mailing lists

Abridged QUIC Version History