A new QUIC version for network property communication

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document describes SCONE, a protocol for the purpose of communicating throughput advice from network elements to endpoints. SCONE uses QUIC long header packets to send throughput advice in parallel to established end-to-end QUIC connections.¶

2. Conventions and Definitions

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.¶

3. SCONE Packet Format

A SCONE packet consists of a QUIC long header optionally followed by throughput advice fields:¶

SCONE Packet {
  Header Form (1) = 1,
  Fixed Bit (1) = 0,
  Throughput Advice Bit (1),
  Average Window Bit (1),
  Forward Bit (1)
  Reserved Bits (3),
  Version (32),
  Destination Connection ID Length (8),
  Destination Connection ID (8..160),
  Source Connection ID Length (8),
  Source Connection ID (8..160),
  [Throughput Advice (32)],
  [Average Window (32)]
}

Header Form:

The most significant bit (0x80) of byte 0 (the first byte) is set to 1 to indicate a QUIC long header.¶

Fixed Bit:

The next bit (0x40) of byte 0 is set to 1.¶

Throughput Advice Bit:

The next bit (0x20) indicates the precense of a throughput advice field in this packet.¶

Average Window Bit:

The next bit (0x10) indicates the precense of average window field in this packet.¶

Forward Bit:

The next bit (0x8) is set by clients and indicates whether the SCONE packet should be forwarded or consumed by the first network element that sees it.¶

Reserved Bits:

These bits are reserved for future use and SHOULD be set to 0.¶

Version:

This QUIC version uses the value 0x5509c337, which was chosen at random.¶

Destination Connection ID Length:

The byte following the version contains the length in bytes of the Destination Connection ID field that follows it. This length is encoded as an 8-bit unsigned integer.¶

Destination Connection ID:

The Destination Connection ID field follows the Destination Connection ID Length field, which indicates the length of this field. A Destination Connection ID MUST be at least 8 bytes long.¶

Source Connection ID Length:

The byte following the Destination Connection ID contains the length in bytes of the Source Connection ID field that follows it. This length is encoded as an 8-bit unsigned integer.¶

Source Connection ID:

The Source Connection ID field follows the Source Connection ID Length field, which indicates the length of this field. A Source Connection ID MUST be at least 8 bytes long.¶

Throughput Advice:

The throughput advice is a 32bit unsigned integer representing maximum sustainable throughput through the network element. Expressed in Kb/s.¶

Average Window:

Indicates the duration over which the bitrate is enforced. Expressed in milliseconds.¶

4. Packet Protection

SCONE uses packet protection as defined for Initial packets in section 5 of [QUIC-TLS].¶

SCONE packets do not have packet numbers, therefore nonces are created by combining the initial Destination Connection ID with the Source Connection ID of the packet. A sender MUST generate a Source Connection ID with a high probability of being unique for each packet.¶

5. Communication Overview

The goal of SCONE is to provide a way to communicate throughput advice between an on-path network device and a QUIC client endpoint, with the QUIC client responsible for the initiation of that communication.¶

Before establishing the communication, a QUIC client usually establishes a QUIC version 1 or 2 end-to-end connection as per RFC 9000. Once this is done, the client opportunistically sends a SCONE packet destined to the same endpoint IP address and port. This packet can be parsed by any capable network element on the path. All capable elements are able to respond to the initial packet in a similar fashion, by creating their own SCONE packets and sending them to the QUIC client matching the IP/port tuple being utilized by the end-to-end QUIC connection.¶

+--------+      +---------+       +--------+
|  QUIC  |      | Network |       |  QUIC  |
| Client |      | Element |       | Server |
+---+----+      +----+----+       +---+----+
    |                |                |
    +----------- QUICv1/v2 ---------->|
    |                |                |
    |---- SCONE ---->|---- SCONE ---->|
    |<--- SCONE -----|                |
    |                |                |

A network element that receives a SCONE packet from a client with the forward bit set to 1 MUST forward the packet. A network element that receives a SCONE packet with the forward bit set to 0 MAY drop it.¶

The QUIC client must be able to distinguish the end-to-end QUIC version 1 or 2 packets and SCONE packets. The QUIC server does not need to be SCONE-aware as it will ignore the packet based on the (unknown) version number.¶

6. On Path Verification

Communication using this new QUIC version MUST only be done with network elements that can be verified to be on the same network path as an end to end QUIC flow. This is because this communication is only meant to be done with network elements that have the ability to, for example, modify and drop packets relevant to an end-to-end QUIC flow. As QUIC packets for this new version are themselves carried in separate UDP datagrams from the end to end QUIC flow, there is not an inherent guarantee that they were generated by a network element.¶

A capable network device MUST set the Destination Connection ID Length and Destination Connection ID fields to the values received in the most recently observed new version QUIC packet sent by a client.¶

7. Extensibility To Provide Confidentiality and Authenticity

The use of keys derived from a publicly known salt does not allow for confidentiality or authenticity of the communication. The only manner of authenticity defined in this document is verification of the on-path nature of a network element. It may be desirable for this version of QUIC to be extended to allow for confidentiality and authenticity.¶

Confidentiality with this protocol could be achieved by further leveraging the provisions of QUIC version 1 to do a TLS handshake between the QUIC client and a capable network element. Authenticity could similarly leverage the provisions of TLS. However, this comes with significant complications. TLS achieves authenticity by using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), where each participant can choose to trust the certificate offered by their peer. While this PKI exists today for Internet endpoints, there is no such existing PKI for network elements. It is important to note that conducting a TLS handshake would restrict the communication between the QUIC client and exactly one on-path network element.¶

Alternatively, a network element could advertise a set of hosts to which the client can connect using QUIC version 1.¶

8. Security Considerations

TODO Security¶

9. IANA Considerations

TBD - QUIC version.¶

10. Normative References

[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/rfc/rfc2119>.

[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/rfc/rfc8174>.

Acknowledgments

TODO acknowledge.¶

Authors' Addresses