HTTP/3: What it is? and why it benefits you

HTTP/3 is here, and chances are you’re benefitting from it right now. But what is HTTP/3? (Why) does it matter to service providers? And how can the telco community keep abreast of standards evolution, while at the same time benefitting from these developments?

The answers to these questions involve a fair few acronyms, but bear with us! In the scope of this blog, we’ll aim to provide an overview of HTTP’s evolution and how it impacts test and measurement.

What is HTTP?

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This is the fundamental building block of the internet, created at the dawn of the World Wide Web by the web’s founder, Tim Berners Lee (plus team!).

HTTP is the foundation of any data exchanged on the Web and is a well established set of rules that enable communication between a client, such as a browser on a laptop or mobile phone, and computer servers that contains information. In operation, the client sends a request to the server and the server responds by loading web pages.

In short: it underpins information transfer across the internet. It sounds simple, but HTTP has evolved from its early days and, with its third iteration in Internet Draft (ID) stages, everyone in the telco sector should be aware of what it is and why it’s important.

The evolution of HTTP

Over the years there have been several iterations of HTTP. The initial limited scope version – HTTP/0.9 – was defined in 1991. This was followed in 1996 by HTTP/1.0, by HTTP/1.1 in 1997, and by HTTP/2 in 2015. In general, each new version of the protocol was intended to deliver improvements such as speed, latency, bandwidth utilization, security and user experience. 

HTTP’s evolution continues today with the adoption of HPPT/3 as an ID by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). HTTP/3 differs from its predecessor in a few respects. First, HTTP/3 is a transport layer based on the Quick UDP Internet Connection (QUIC) protocol initially developed by Google and originally designated HTTP-over-QUIC. QUIC rides on top of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). This marks a change from HTTP/2, which uses Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connectivity. What advantages does this promise? Even faster connection times; better performance, especially on reduced quality networks; lower latency, packet loss and congestion; enhanced security; and superior user experience.

Users aren’t the only ones to benefit. The quest to enhance and extend the features of HTTP is important to a variety of stakeholders, including website service providers, video streaming companies, online enterprises, network operators, equipment suppliers and end users themselves.

Handling internet capacity (HTTP/3)

Let’s take an example we can all relate to – mobile access to websites. In its much-referenced research, Google has suggested that while more than half of overall web traffic comes from mobile phones, mobile conversion rates i.e. time taken to load a web page are lower than desktop. It also found that as page load time increases from one to ten seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor ‘bouncing’ increases 123%.

Video is likewise a large and growing component of internet capacity usage. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast, global consumer internet video traffic will grow 4.3-fold from 2017 to 2022, a compound annual growth rate of 34%. In old-school terms, this represents the equivalent of 60 billion DVDs per month, or 82 million DVDs per hour.

For more on this, I’d recommend this web posting by Facebook/Meta software engineers Matt Joras and Yang Chi, that details the results of the company’s experiment with QUIC. The duo report a dramatic effect on video metrics in the Facebook app. Mean time between rebuffering, a measure of the time between buffering events, improved by up to 22%, depending on the platform. The overall error count on video requests was reduced by 8%, and the rate of video stalls was reduced by 20%.

In addition to QUIC, Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming over HTTP has also been used to improve the user experience and support demand for internet capacity,

Testing and monitoring HTTP/3 networks

HTTP/3 testing is more complex than its predecessors as it will have a significant impact on security infrastructures in the network. Encryption and privacy are cornerstones of HTTP/3 with most of the headers being encrypted and not even visible to third parties. This differs significantly from HTTP 1.1 or 2.0 where TLS encryption worked only on the payload but not on the headers.  Encrypting headers and other metadata while making HTTP/3 very secure is a nightmare for Service Providers and Enterprises looking to perform content inspection. With multiple streams over single QUIC connection, Service providers are keen to understand the impact of varying data rates on the same QUIC flow on network nodes.

VIAVI Solutions

The VIAVI test solution offers extensive coverage of HTTP/3 testing with the ability to configure multiple HTTP streams with configurable data rates over a single QUIC connection to simulate realistic scenarios from a user device. This helps to understand the impact of unique QUIC traffic patterns on network nodes while at the same time providing valuable KPI information such as observed data rates of individual http streams within a QUIC connection.

Best of breed HTTP network performance monitoring, test and analytics systems and methodologies are instrumental in making sure network users can access and take advantage of digital services. They’re also critical steps for any service provider, tasked with providing high-quality, reliable and consistent network access. In addition, network sustainment companies dedicated to keeping the wheels of the internet turning smoothly, much also have a high level of awareness of, and preparedness for, possible unforeseen network challenges and shortcomings. They must identify and assess, not just present network challenges and deficiencies. As standards evolve, these companies must also discover and address new limitations and vulnerabilities to satisfy new operational, market and technical requirements.

At VIAVI, we’re helping to make this happen. Thanks to our extensive collaboration with standards bodies and the CSP and ISP communities, we’re anticipating changes in the HTTP networking landscape. We’re working with our customers to ensure they can position themselves ahead of the curve when it comes to supporting the evolution of standards. With tools, global partnerships, international cooperation, and resource-sharing, we make sure telcos are fully equipped to successfully engage with whatever the future might have in store.