Observing the Evolution of QUIC Implementations

TL;DR

This paper presents a test suite for verifying QUIC protocol implementations and analyzes their evolution over time, revealing new features and regressions across multiple implementations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive QUIC conformance test suite and provides the first longitudinal analysis of QUIC implementation evolution during standardization.

Findings

Detection of new features in implementations over time

Identification of regressions and inconsistencies among implementations

Insights into the evolution of protocol compliance during standardization

Abstract

The QUIC protocol combines features that were initially found inside the TCP, TLS and HTTP/2 protocols. The IETF is currently finalising a complete specification of this protocol. More than a dozen of independent implementations have been developed in parallel with these standardisation activities. We propose and implement a QUIC test suite that interacts with public QUIC servers to verify their conformance with key features of the IETF specification. Our measurements, gathered over a semester, provide a unique viewpoint on the evolution of a protocol and of its implementations. They highlight the arrival of new features and some regressions among the different implementations.