Network Working Group                                           T. Pauly
Internet-Draft                                                E. Kinnear
Intended status: Standards Track                              Apple Inc.
Expires: June 20, 2019                                       D. Schinazi
                                                              Google LLC
                                                       December 17, 2018


                An Unreliable Datagram Extension to QUIC
                      draft-pauly-quic-datagram-01

Abstract

   This document defines an extension to the QUIC transport protocol to
   add support for sending and receiving unreliable datagrams over a
   QUIC connection.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on June 20, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.



Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 1]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Specification of Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Motivation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Transport Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Datagram Frame Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Behavior and Usage  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.1.  Datagram Identifiers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.2.  Flow Control and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   The QUIC Transport Protocol [I-D.ietf-quic-transport] provides a
   secure, multiplexed connection for transmitting reliable streams of
   application data.  Reliability within QUIC is performed on a per-
   stream basis, so some frame types are not eligible for
   retransmission.

   Some applications, particularly those that need to transmit real-time
   data, prefer to transmit data unreliably.  These applications can
   build directly upon UDP [RFC0768] as a transport, and can add
   security with DTLS [RFC6347].  Extending QUIC to support transmitting
   unreliable application data would provide another option for secure
   datagrams, with the added benefit of sharing a cryptographic and
   authentication context used for reliable streams.

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

1.1.  Specification of Requirements

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Motivation

   Transmitting unreliable data over QUIC provides benefits over
   existing solutions:




Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 2]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


   o  Applications that open both a reliable TLS stream and an
      unreliable DTLS flow to the same peer can benefit by sharing a
      single handshake and authentication context between a reliable
      QUIC stream and flow of unreliable QUIC datagrams.  This can
      reduce the latency required for handshakes.

   o  QUIC uses a more nuanced loss recovery mechanism than the DTLS
      handshake, which has a basic packet loss retransmission timer.
      This may allow loss recovery to occur more quickly for QUIC data.

   o  QUIC datagrams, while unreliable, can support acknowledgements,
      allowing applications to be aware of whether a datagram was
      successfully received.

   These reductions in connection latency, and application insight into
   the delivery of datagrams, can be useful for optimizing audio/video
   streaming applications, gaming applications, and other real-time
   network applications.

   Unreliable QUIC datagrams can also be used to implement an IP packet
   tunnel over QUIC, such as for a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
   Internet-layer tunneling protocols generally require a reliable and
   authenticated handshake, followed by unreliable secure transmission
   of IP packets.  This can, for example, require a TLS connection for
   the control data, and DTLS for tunneling IP packets.  A single QUIC
   connection could support both parts with the use of unreliable
   datagrams.

3.  Transport Parameter

   Support for receiving the DATAGRAM frame types is advertised by means
   of a QUIC Transport Parameter (name=accepts_datagrams, value=12).  An
   endpoint that includes this parameter supports the DATAGRAM frame
   types and is willing to receive such frames on this connection.
   Endpoints MUST NOT send DATAGRAM frames until they have sent and
   received the accepts_datagrams transport parameter.  An endpoint that
   receives a DATAGRAM frame when it has not sent the accepts_datagrams
   transport parameter MUST terminate the connection with error
   PROTOCOL_VIOLATION.

4.  Datagram Frame Type

   DATAGRAM frames are used to transmit application data in an
   unreliable manner.  The DATAGRAM frame type takes the form 0b001000XX
   (or the set of values from 0x20 to 0x23).  The least significant bit
   of the DATAGRAM frame type is the LEN bit (0x01).  It indicates that
   there is a Length field present.  If this bit is set to 0, the Length
   field is absent and the Datagram Data field extends to the end of the



Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 3]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


   packet.  If this bit is set to 1, the Length field is present.  The
   second least significant bit of the DATAGRAM frame type is the
   DATAGRAM_ID bit (0x02).  It indicates that there is a Datagram ID
   field present.  If this bit is set to 0, the Datagram ID field is
   absent and the Datagram ID is assumed to be zero.  If this bit is set
   to 1, the Datagram ID field is present.

   A DATAGRAM frame is shown below.

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                      [Datagram ID (i)]                      ...
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                         [Length (i)]                        ...
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                       Datagram Data (*)                     ...
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                      Figure 1: DATAGRAM Frame Format

   The fields of a DATAGRAM frame are as follows:

   Datagram ID:  A variable-length integer indicating the datagram ID of
      the datagram (see Section 5.1).

   Length:  A variable-length integer specifying the length of the
      datagram in bytes.  If the length is zero, the data extends to the
      end of the QUIC packet.

   Datagram Data:  The bytes of the datagram to be delivered.

5.  Behavior and Usage

   When an application sends an unreliable datagram over a QUIC
   connection, QUIC will generate a new DATAGRAM frame and send it in
   the first available packet.  This frame SHOULD NOT be delayed, but
   MAY be coalesced with other STREAM or DATAGRAM frames.

   When a QUIC endpoint receives a valid DATAGRAM frame, it SHOULD
   deliver the data to the application immediately.

   DATAGRAM frames MUST be protected with either 0-RTT or 1-RTT keys.








Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 4]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


5.1.  Datagram Identifiers

   Since several applications relying on datagrams have the need to
   identify which application-level flow a given datagram is a part of,
   DATAGRAM frames carry a datagram identifier.  Applications that do
   not have a need for the identifier can use the value zero on their
   DATAGRAM frames and use the DATAGRAM_ID bit to omit sending the
   identifier over the wire.  If an application uses a mixture of
   DATAGRAM frames with and without the DATAGRAM_ID bit set, the frames
   without it are assumed to be part of the application-level flow with
   Datagram ID zero.

5.2.  Flow Control and Acknowledgements

   Although the DATAGRAM frame is not retransmitted upon loss detection,
   it does contribute to the maximum data for the overall connection.
   Packets that contain only DATAGRAM frames do need to be acknowledged,
   but implementations SHOULD defer and batch acknowledgements since the
   timing of these acknowledgements is not used for loss recovery.

   The DATAGRAM frame does not provide any explicit flow control
   signaling apart from the connection-level flow control.  DATAGRAM
   frames are flow controlled only when the maximum data for the
   connection is hit, at which point the BLOCKED frame is sent.

   In cases in which a DATAGRAM frame is blocked due to connection-level
   flow control or congestion control, an implementation MAY drop the
   frame without sending it.

6.  Security Considerations

   The DATAGRAM frame shares the same security properties as the rest of
   the data transmitted within a QUIC connection.  All application data
   transmitted with the DATAGRAM frame, like the STREAM frame, MUST be
   protected either by 0-RTT or 1-RTT keys.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document registers a new value in the QUIC Transport Parameters:

   Value:  12 (if this document is approved)

   Parameter Name:  accepts_datagrams

   Specification:  Indicates that the connection should enable support
      for unreliable DATAGRAM frames.  An endpoint that advertises this
      transport parameter can receive datagrams frames from the other
      endpoint.



Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 5]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


   This document also registers a new value in the QUIC Frame Type
   registry:

   Value:  0x1c - 0x1d (if this document is approved)

   Frame Name:  DATAGRAM

   Specification:  Unreliable application data

8.  Acknowledgments

   Thanks to Ian Swett, who inspired this proposal.

9.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-quic-transport]
              Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed
              and Secure Transport", draft-ietf-quic-transport-16 (work
              in progress), October 2018.

   [RFC0768]  Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0768, August 1980,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc768>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC6347]  Rescorla, E. and N. Modadugu, "Datagram Transport Layer
              Security Version 1.2", RFC 6347, DOI 10.17487/RFC6347,
              January 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6347>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

Authors' Addresses

   Tommy Pauly
   Apple Inc.
   One Apple Park Way
   Cupertino, California 95014
   United States of America

   Email: tpauly@apple.com





Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 6]


Internet-Draft               QUIC Datagrams                December 2018


   Eric Kinnear
   Apple Inc.
   One Apple Park Way
   Cupertino, California 95014
   United States of America

   Email: ekinnear@apple.com


   David Schinazi
   Google LLC
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View, California 94043
   United States of America

   Email: dschinazi.ietf@gmail.com



































Pauly, et al.             Expires June 20, 2019                 [Page 7]