An Unreliable Datagram Extension to QUIC

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The QUIC Transport Protocol [RFC9000] provides a secure, multiplexed connection for transmitting reliable streams of application data. QUIC uses various frame types to transmit data within packets, and each frame type defines whether or not the data it contains will be retransmitted. Streams of reliable application data are sent using STREAM frames.¶

Some applications, particularly those that need to transmit real-time data, prefer to transmit data unreliably. In the past, these applications have built directly upon UDP [RFC0768] as a transport, and have often added security with DTLS [RFC6347]. Extending QUIC to support transmitting unreliable application data provides another option for secure datagrams, with the added benefit of sharing the cryptographic and authentication context used for reliable streams.¶

This document defines two new DATAGRAM QUIC frame types, which carry application data without requiring retransmissions.¶

2. Motivation

Transmitting unreliable data over QUIC provides benefits over existing solutions: