QUIC Connection ID Based Initial Routing

Introduction Several scenarios exist where multiple independent or isolated servers need to run in the same environment, but cannot use independent local UDP ports. For instance, in server deployments that have hundreds or thousands of machines, each with tens or hundreds of different QUIC servers running on them, the server infrastructure may not be able to support the number of local UDP ports it would require to give each server a unique one. Additionally, because of infrastructure requirements additional IP addresses may not be able to be used as a solution either. In these scenarios, the server infrastructure needs a way to essentially NAT QUIC packets on a shared local UDP port between all servers using that port. This document defines a mechanism for using QUIC connection IDs to encode the necessary information for all client to server QUIC packets to be correctly routed to the appropriate server. A cooperating client can then use this to specifically target a server on a shared port.

Terms and Definitions The keywords "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 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

Specification

Transport Parameter Support for encoding CIBIR information is negotiated by means of a QUIC Transport Parameter (name=cibir_encoding, value=0x30). The cibir_encoding transport parameter consists of two integer values (represented as variable-length integers) that represent the length and offset to the well-known identifier encoded into the client's source connection ID. Servers that share a local UDP port using the CIBIR extension unconditionally route received packets according to the CIBIR extension's protocol. The cibir_encoding transport parameter is used on the server side after the routing has already happened to validate the intent of the client. Servers MUST validate the client sent the cibir_encoding transport parameter with the matching offset and length that has been configured locally. If the transport parameter is missing or contains incorrect values the server MUST terminate the connection with an error of type CONNECTION_REFUSED. No special routing is done on the client side, but client MUST also validate the server sent the cibir_encoding transport parameter with the matching offset and length so as to verify the server is cooperating in the expected routing scheme. If the transport parameter is missing or contains incorrect values the client MUST terminate the connection with an error of type TRANSPORT_PARAMETER_ERROR.

Packet Encoding and Routing The base QUIC transport protocol provides no way to consistently route long header packets to the correct server in a shared UDP environment. The only possibly way a server's infrastructure has to identify which server the client is trying to connect to is the ALPN or SNI, but these are not included in all long header packets. Additionally, the destination connection ID in packets sent to the server cannot be used because there is no stateless way determine if the CID is client or server chosen, not to mention the complexities around server chosen CIDs in a load balanced environment (which the client does not necessarily know anything about). To achieve consistent routing for these long header packets, the client encodes a well-known identifier into its source connection ID. The length and offset of the well-known ID must be pre-agreed upon between the client and server, and is validated via the cibir_encoding transport parameter as described above. When the server infrastructure receives a QUIC long header packet on the shared UDP port it uses the well-known identifier to route the packet to the correct server. No special routing is necessary for short header packets. These packets always use server chosen destination connection IDs, and the logic by which these CIDs are chosen, created and interpreted is purely up to the server and server infrastructure. The client doesn't need to be involved in this logic beyond the normal use of destination connection IDs.

Security Considerations The client encodes well-known IDs in the QUIC connection ID that may expose information to an observer.

IANA Considerations

QUIC Transport Parameter This document registers a new value in the QUIC Transport Parameter Registry maintained at .

Value:: 0x30
Parameter Name:: cibir_encoding
Status:: permanent
Specification:: This document