Cloudflare Cloudflare's QUIC and HTTP/3

Sweet thanks for the heads up

 

HTTP/3 QUIC support is client dependent. So you web browser needs to support it too. Right now only Google Chrome Canary 78+ supports gQUIC google's version of QUIC and not same as Cloudflare's HTTP/3 over QUIC with is using IETF draft not Google's gQUIC it via optional flag

Code:

--enable-quic --quic-version=h3-23

Other clients like curl have experimental support in curl 7.66+ dev versions if you build with HTTP/3 support for testing your site.

I built my own custom curl 7.67 dev binary with Cloudflare Quiche (QUIC library) with HTTP/3 h3-23 draft + BoringSSL to enable support for HTTP/3 h3-23 IETF testing against Cloudflare's HTTP/3 QUIC enabled sites

Code (Text):

curl-http3 -V
curl 7.67.0-DEV (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.67.0-DEV BoringSSL zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.36.0 quiche/0.1.0-alpha4
Release-Date: [unreleased]
Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtsp scp sftp smb smbs smtp smtps telnet tftp
Features: alt-svc AsynchDNS brotli HTTP2 HTTP3 HTTPS-proxy IDN IPv6 Largefile libz NTLM NTLM_WB PSL SSL UnixSockets

curl tests against some HTTP/3 QUIC h3-23 draft enabled sites where you notice key indicators for HTTP/3 QUIC

the draft version the curl client sent request for

Code (Text):

Sent QUIC client Initial, ALPN: h3-23

and

Code (Text):

HTTP/3 200

cloudflare-quic.com

Code (Text):

curl-http3 --http3 -4Iv https://cloudflare-quic.com
*   Trying 104.20.106.50:443...
* Sent QUIC client Initial, ALPN: h3-23
* h3 [:method: HEAD]
* h3 [:path: /]
* h3 [:scheme: https]
* h3 [:authority: cloudflare-quic.com]
* h3 [user-agent: curl/7.67.0-DEV]
* h3 [accept: */*]
* Using HTTP/3 Stream ID: 0 (easy handle 0x55ee98c45e60)
> HEAD / HTTP/3
> Host: cloudflare-quic.com
> user-agent: curl/7.67.0-DEV
> accept: */*
>
< HTTP/3 200
HTTP/3 200
< date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 01:47:35 GMT
date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 01:47:35 GMT
< content-type: text/html
content-type: text/html
< content-length: 106072
content-length: 106072
* Added cookie __cfduid="d3d016fd2063af06f1f06e7b9f774e1fd1569462455" for domain cloudflare-quic.com, path /, expire 1600998455
< set-cookie: __cfduid=d3d016fd2063af06f1f06e7b9f774e1fd1569462455; expires=Fri, 25-Sep-20 01:47:35 GMT; path=/; domain=.cloudflare-quic.com; HttpOnly; Secure
set-cookie: __cfduid=d3d016fd2063af06f1f06e7b9f774e1fd1569462455; expires=Fri, 25-Sep-20 01:47:35 GMT; path=/; domain=.cloudflare-quic.com; HttpOnly; Secure
< alt-svc: h3-23=":443"; ma=86400
alt-svc: h3-23=":443"; ma=86400
< expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
< server: cloudflare
server: cloudflare
< cf-ray: 51c1921aeadcc5f0-EWR
cf-ray: 51c1921aeadcc5f0-EWR
* Connection #0 to host cloudflare-quic.com left intact

litespeedtech.com

Code (Text):

curl-http3 --http3 -4Iv https://www.litespeedtech.com
*   Trying 52.55.120.73:443...
* Sent QUIC client Initial, ALPN: h3-23
* h3 [:method: HEAD]
* h3 [:path: /]
* h3 [:scheme: https]
* h3 [:authority: www.litespeedtech.com]
* h3 [user-agent: curl/7.67.0-DEV]
* h3 [accept: */*]
* Using HTTP/3 Stream ID: 0 (easy handle 0x560456499e60)
> HEAD / HTTP/3
> Host: www.litespeedtech.com
> user-agent: curl/7.67.0-DEV
> accept: */*
>
< HTTP/3 200
HTTP/3 200
< x-powered-by: PHP/7.3.5
x-powered-by: PHP/7.3.5
< x-logged-in: False
x-logged-in: False
< x-content-powered-by: K2 v2.7.1 (by JoomlaWorks)
x-content-powered-by: K2 v2.7.1 (by JoomlaWorks)
< content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< expires: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT
expires: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT
< last-modified: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 18:14:30 GMT
last-modified: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 18:14:30 GMT
< cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
< pragma: no-cache
pragma: no-cache
< etag: "5433628-1569435270;;;"
etag: "5433628-1569435270;;;"
< vary: Accept-Encoding
vary: Accept-Encoding
< x-lsadc-cache: hit
x-lsadc-cache: hit
< date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 01:46:45 GMT
date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 01:46:45 GMT
< server: LiteSpeed
server: LiteSpeed
< alt-svc: quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="39,43,46", h3-23=":443"; ma=2592000
alt-svc: quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="39,43,46", h3-23=":443"; ma=2592000
* Connection #0 to host www.litespeedtech.com left intact

 

If cloudflare activated HTTP/3 QUIC for your domain then you don't need to do anything if you're using cloudflare HTTPS/SSL.

HTTP/3 QUIC is still in development so not final only drafts so no clients support it really for IETF QUIC version compared to Google's sites gQUIC version which Chrome supports. Basically, Cloudflare enabled it so customers are beta testers for the developing HTTP/3 QUIC standard. Majority of visitors and their client's (browsers) won't be connecting to Cloudflare HTTP/3 QUIC enabled sites but HTTP/2 for now.

 

• Chrome Canary with optional flags enable support for HTTP/3 Google's version of QUIC called gQUIC with h3-23 draft
• But Cloudflare HTTP/3 over QUIC uses IETF version of QUIC with h3-23 draft but it's different from Google qUIC
• Both client (browser) and web server (cloudflare) need to use same version of HTTP/3 QUIC which isn't happening during HTTP/3 QUIC development as everyone is developing IETF QUIC version but Google browser is doing their own gQUIC right now when in development. I believe when HTTP/3 QUIC final version is announced, Google probably will switch to support IETF QUIC I suspect.
• So yes right now Cloudflare HTTP/3 QUIC IETF isn't much use for anyone unless you're developing or testing client support i.e. browsers, curl and other tools.

QUIC - Wikipedia

 

See The Road to QUIC

Cloudflare (ngx_quic nginx module internally being developed) and I suspect Nginx 1.17 mainline web server are developing HTTP/3 over QUIC IETF version.

 

Ah another point at HTTP/3: the past, the present, and the future

need to reload page a few times to get HTTP/3 too

http2+quic/99 = HTTP/3

 

make sure to test subsequent page loads which is where HTTP/3 has more benefit

using webpagetest.org advance options for canary browser 5mbps test with scripted 5x runs of same cloudflare-quic.com test logging only webpagetest.org's 5th run metrics for with HTTP/3 enabled canary flags versus HTTP/2 without canary flags

with HTTP/3

where http2+quic/99 = HTTP/3 and slightly faster TTFB, First Contentful Paint, First Meaningful Paint, DOM Content Loaded time, And faster request start time and Load Time metrics

with HTTP/2

compared - close but cloudflare-quic.com probably optimised for both HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 is still maturing

where http2+quic/99 = HTTP/3 and slightly faster TTFB, First Contentful Paint, First Meaningful Paint, DOM Content Loaded time, And faster request start time and Load Time metrics



note not the best site to test though as cloudflare-quic.com has 8KB page and 1 request so benefits of HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 aren't really utilised.

 

Cloudflare HTTP/3 QUIC enabled on my new blog site https://servermanager.guide/

curl HTTP/3 QUIC request

Code (Text):

curl-http3 --http3 -4I https://servermanager.guide/
HTTP/3 200
date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:15:07 GMT
content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
set-cookie: __cfduid=df90c486f8993d397409fd2ea750bc0251569597307; expires=Sat, 26-Sep-20 15:15:07 GMT; path=/; domain=.servermanager.guide; HttpOnly; Secure
cf-cache-status: HIT
cache-control: public, max-age=28800
cf-ray: 51ce6e60fa3221f0-EWR
age: 710
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
expires: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 23:15:07 GMT
link: <https://servermanager.guide/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/"
referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains;
vary: Accept-Encoding
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN
x-powered-by: centminmod
x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
alt-svc: h3-23=":443"; ma=86400
server: cloudflare

curl HTTP/2 request

Code (Text):

curl-http3 --http2 -4I https://servermanager.guide/   
HTTP/2 200 
date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:17:16 GMT
content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
set-cookie: __cfduid=df7e2fce3d968e24736c932fe883a7dab1569597436; expires=Sat, 26-Sep-20 15:17:16 GMT; path=/; domain=.servermanager.guide; HttpOnly; Secure
cf-cache-status: HIT
cache-control: public, max-age=28800
cf-ray: 51ce718cd885e0ae-IAD
age: 833
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
expires: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 23:17:16 GMT
link: <https://servermanager.guide/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/"
referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains;
vary: Accept-Encoding
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN
x-powered-by: centminmod
x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
alt-svc: h3-23=":443"; ma=86400
server: cloudflare

 

Litespeed folks created a HTTP/3 check site at HTTP3Check too which supports latest HTTP/3 h3-23 draft. Note if you server runs a newer HTTP/3 draft in future, http3check.net might not work until it also gets updated to support the newer draft i.e. HTTP/3 h3-24

 

FYI, Cloudflare was kind enough to release their HTTP/3 Nginx patch Nginx - Centmin Mod Nginx with Cloudflare HTTP/3 Nginx Patch !

 

Probably not worth it right now beyond just curiosity testing as there's a huge amount of bug and security fixes between nginx 1.16.1 and 1.17.5 if you look at change log at https://nginx.org/en/CHANGES