The Internet works the same way it did almost five decades ago, when it was born. The TCP protocol debuted in 1974, and since then it has been the foundation on which all Internet transmissions have operated.
However, in all that time they have seen what its weaknesses are, and that is why Google proposed a new version almost a decade ago. Now, it is finally ready to replace the current one.
This has been announced by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), in charge of establishing Internet standards, and which affirms that the Google protocol has reached a sufficient level of maturity to replace the current TCP. Google's new protocol is known as Quick UDP Internet Connections, or QUIC, and as the name suggests, it is faster than the current TCP. The name was originally going to be HTTP / 3, but it seems that they have finally chosen to use the Google name.
QUIC: Internet faster than TCP
QUIC was first deployed by Google in 2013 as an update for Google Chrome, improving the speed it took for data to go from the browser to the company's servers. They then did further testing until it was submitted to the IETF in 2016 for approval.
Network protocols such as TCP or QUIC are responsible for determining how information is divided into packets to travel through the Internet and then join at the destination, where it uses the IP protocol to know where that data has to go. Thanks to this, the information reaches the destination earlier, since the packages that arrive first can be assembled earlier and not have to wait for all of them to arrive to display the content.
In the case of QUIC, the protocol is designed around UDP, offering an improved mechanism for recovering data that may have been lost along the way. We do not know the current performance figures, but in 2017 Google published an investigation in which they claimed that QUIC allowed to load searches on Google 8% faster on PC and 4% on mobile phones, and that buffering on YouTube took a while 18% less on computers and 15% less on mobiles.
Migrating from TCP to QUIC: The Next Internet Challenge
Connections from websites and services that use encryption are also greatly benefited, where the protocol has TLS 3.0 encryption by default, and not additionally as is done now. In addition, the transitions between WiFi and mobile coverage on our smartphones should be made faster with QUIC.
The only downside we are facing now is that the migration from TCP to QUIC is not going to be fast, as all services are built around TCP. Therefore, the massive and immediate jump is very far, although it should not take as long as it is happening with IPv6. Large technology companies will gradually adopt the standard, especially those services that benefit the most. Those who do not use it, will continue using the current TCP without problem, so the transition will be smooth and silent.
Date update on 2021-06-03. Date published on 2021-06-03. Category: Computer class Author: Oscar olg Fuente: adslzone