Network Working Group X. x1co Internet-Draft May 2026 Intended status: Experimental Expires: 26 November 2026 Independent QUIC (iQUIC): A Low-Concurrency Operational Profile for HTTP/3 draft-x1co-httpbis-iquic-00 Abstract This document describes iQUIC (Independent QUIC), an experimental operational profile for HTTP/3 over QUIC. iQUIC aims to reduce aggressive application-level multiplexing behavior commonly associated with HTTP/3 deployments while preserving compatibility with QUIC, TLS 1.3, and HTTP/3 semantics. Instead of removing mandatory HTTP/3 internal streams, iQUIC limits concurrent application requests per QUIC connection and encourages the use of multiple independent QUIC keep-alive sessions. 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 2 November 2026. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2026 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. x1co Expires 26 November 2026 [Page 1] Internet-Draft iQUIC May 2026 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 Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Non-Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Operational Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5. Connection Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7. Performance Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8. Compatibility Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9. Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 10. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. Introduction HTTP/3 introduces multiplexed HTTP semantics over QUIC transport streams. While QUIC solves transport-layer Head-of-Line blocking present in TCP-based HTTP/2 deployments, modern HTTP/3 deployments frequently utilize large numbers of concurrent streams within a single QUIC connection. This behavior introduces operational complexity, including: * Stream explosion * Large long-lived super-connections * Complex prioritization logic * Difficult debugging and observability * Cross-request coupling iQUIC proposes a simplified operational model inspired by HTTP/1.1 keep-alive behavior. x1co Expires 26 November 2026 [Page 2] Internet-Draft iQUIC May 2026 2. Goals The goals of iQUIC are: * Preserve compatibility with QUIC and HTTP/3 * Preserve TLS 1.3 security guarantees * Reduce aggressive request multiplexing * Encourage request isolation * Improve operational simplicity * Improve implementation predictability 3. Non-Goals iQUIC does not: * Replace QUIC transport * Replace HTTP/3 framing * Remove TLS 1.3 requirements * Remove mandatory HTTP/3 internal streams * Define a new wire format 4. Operational Model iQUIC implementations SHOULD limit concurrent application-level requests per QUIC connection. Mandatory HTTP/3 internal streams remain fully operational, including: * Control streams * QPACK encoder streams * QPACK decoder streams An example iQUIC deployment MAY allow only one active application request per QUIC connection. x1co Expires 26 November 2026 [Page 3] Internet-Draft iQUIC May 2026 5. Connection Philosophy Traditional HTTP/3 deployments frequently optimize for maximal multiplexing efficiency. iQUIC instead prioritizes: * Request isolation * Predictable behavior * Reduced cross-request coupling * Simplified debugging characteristics This behavior intentionally resembles HTTP/1.1 keep-alive operational patterns while retaining QUIC transport capabilities. 6. Security Considerations iQUIC relies entirely on existing QUIC and TLS 1.3 security properties. This document introduces no new cryptographic mechanisms. All QUIC encryption and authentication requirements from RFC 9001 remain mandatory. 7. Performance Considerations iQUIC deployments may experience: * Increased connection counts * Reduced multiplexing efficiency * Improved request isolation * Simplified failure behavior 8. Compatibility Considerations iQUIC is designed as an operational profile rather than a protocol replacement. Standard HTTP/3 clients and servers MAY interoperate with iQUIC deployments without wire-format modifications. x1co Expires 26 November 2026 [Page 4] Internet-Draft iQUIC May 2026 9. Future Work * Explicit iQUIC negotiation mechanisms * HTTP/3 SETTINGS extensions * Browser experimentation * Independent recovery policies 10. Normative References [RFC9000] Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000, 2021, . [RFC9001] Thomson, M. and S. Turner, "Using TLS to Secure QUIC", RFC 9001, 2021, . [RFC9114] Bishop, M., "HTTP/3", RFC 9114, 2022, . Author's Address x1co! Brazil Email: x1colegal@outlook.com.br x1co Expires 26 November 2026 [Page 5]